Unified voices, divided front: Sector-17 protesters call for ‘one clear leader’

Among those present was Parkash Dhillon, 74, a retired principal of Government Model High School, Sector 38, who comes from a family of educationist

The protest demanding accountability for alleged paper leaks in national examinations entered its fifth day at the Sector 17 Plaza on Thursday, with demonstrators calling for a unified movement after multiple groups allegedly staged parallel demonstrations.

However, the absence of “one clear leader” was beginning to cause friction within the movement. (Keshav Singh/HT)

“When the cause is the same, our voices need to be heard together, not from different corners,” said one of the protesters. What began with separate groups independently calling for the protest has, over the past four days, slowly turned into a single, shared voice, with protesters largely steering clear of any political outfit taking overall charge.

However, the absence of “one clear leader” was beginning to cause friction within the movement. “We need somebody to lead the protest, if not, the protest will dissipate. Historically, we’ve witnessed causes disappear without a leader,” said Bramjot Kaur, a protester at the site.

Among those present was Parkash Dhillon, 74, a retired principal of Government Model High School, Sector 38, who comes from a family of educationists. She said the state of the city had degraded in all aspects, not just education, calling it a necessary movement that the entire city needed to raise its voice for. “This isn’t just about one exam or one minister. It’s about what kind of city, what kind of country, we are leaving behind for these children,” she said.

Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who was around the protest site, weighed in on the leadership vacuum, saying a single leadership, possibly political, could lead the movement more effectively. He also said the education subject needed to be decentralised, rather than being controlled by the Centre or a single organisation. “When one entity controls the entire examination and evaluation process for the whole country, this is exactly the kind of failure you get,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, a few inner rifts appeared to have pushed Panjab University (PU) affiliated groups to step back from the main site on Thursday. A separate protest was staged at the university’s Student Centre, where nearly 150 people gathered, even as PU groups at the Sector 17 site went largely unrecognised as a distinct collective within the larger crowd.