When those in power refuse to listen

The long-drawn agitation by students for education reforms need not have happened, if only the government had been less imperious and more amenable to discussion.

There was also a reasonable and well-meaning interlocutor in Sonam Wangchuk. When we interviewed Wangchuk, he appealed for talks before the situation got out of hand. The government responded with silence.

We all know the mess the Indian education system is in. The average middle-class family carries a huge burden of school fees, shoddy text-books and then the challenge of college admissions. Beyond that there is the absence of jobs.

Anguish over the system and particularly so under the Narendra Modi government is not just being expressed in the streets. Not long ago we interviewed Dr Deepak Nayyar, the very respected economist and educationist, who deplored over centralization and politicization of education. He warned of rapidly falling standards, particularly under the current government.

The Modi regime had every opportunity top fix this, but so accustomed is it to staring down other opinions that it continued down an unworkable path.

The demand now across the country has gone from not just the resignation of the education minister but Prime Minister Modi himself. It should worry the BJP and the RSS that Modi is the subject of widespread derision and ridicule. This is the reality in the streets. 

The young leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (should be thanked for bringing fresh energy to public life in India. Over the past 12 years under the NDA government, we have slipped into being a sterile democracy.

Important institutions have been commandeered. People have been afraid of questioning the government. Mediocre talent has been promoted. Corporations have blatantly been deciding policy. NGOs have been pushed out of the picture.

Beyond cleaning up the exam system, the CJP is also asking for greater accountability in public life. It wants politics to be free of communal divides such as has been created between Hindus and Muslims. It asks for the true concerns of people to be addressed.

The agitation also exposes big media. TV channels and newspapers, taking orders from the government, ignored the protests. If word got around it was through social media,independent publications and websites like Civil Society. When the story couldn’t be ignored anymore the big press went in search of conspiracy stories instead of reporting the serious issues relating to education that were being raised.

As we bring you our second detailed cover story on the CJP there is no way of knowing which way things will go. The CJP is back at the protest site from where it was evicted. Hopes are that it will survive further onslaughts.