Treat the cause, not the symptom

There is acute anxiety among the youth fuelled by paper leaks, and irregularities in board examination evaluation

Under the politics, dust, grime and blood of the sweeping protests that rocked Delhi is a simple truth – that there is acute anxiety among young people fuelled by a string of examination paper leaks, irregularities in board examination evaluation, and little political accountability for breaches that have jeopardised the future of millions. That anxiety — bubbling for months but left unaddressed, even mocked — spewed forth on Monday on the streets of the Capital as tens of thousands of protesters marched to Parliament, clashed with a police force that thrashed many unarmed agitators with batons and fired numerous tear gas shells at the crowd. A string of first information reports (FIRs) filed on Tuesday — including one predictably on the wider conspiracy behind the stir — indicate that the authorities see this march, called by the still-nascent Cockroach Janata Party, as an isolated occurrence. But the government will be well advised to treat the cause for this discontent, not its symptom.

The Constitution promises every citizen the right to peacefully protest, subject to reasonable restrictions. (ANI)

The Constitution promises every citizen the right to peacefully protest, subject to reasonable restrictions. No country can tolerate violence being unleashed on the streets and anarchy inconveniencing ordinary citizens. Similarly, no mature democracy should condone police violence unleashed on unarmed protesters. If people have vandalised property and attacked police personnel, they must be booked. But if policemen have been caught on camera thrashing people, if women have allegedly been assaulted, if students are hospitalised with police-inflicted injuries and a senior minister has met them, then there should be an independent inquiry into those charges too.

In a country with many fault lines, the hope for intergenerational mobility is a unifier for parents and students across regions, religions, castes and communities. Jobs, education and the hope for a better life cut across divides, and so do fears around unemployment and making it through an already skewed system where doing well in a competitive exam is a one-in-a-million chance for someone to pull their family out of penury. This is why student activists and political leaders were joined on the streets of Jantar Mantar by school students, those who had never stepped outside their campuses before, those who had travelled a night or more to be there, those who were worried their futures were being snatched by a compromised system that had allowed two national paper leaks in three years, with only some token arrests to show for the offence. No conspiracy theory can dispel this discontent.