Mid-Day Opinion: Students should have no complaints

A large crowd of students and supporters marches through Dadar during the July 22 protest in support of the CJP’s education reforms movement. Pic/Atul Kamble

This may come as a surprise to some Bombayites, but a lot of students across India appear to be angry with the government for multiple reasons. I had no idea about this issue myself, until I happened to read a couple of newspapers from other countries, where independent journalism is still being practised. According to these reports, there have been protests taking place for over a month now, along with a few marches to Parliament because students believe they are being ignored by the government.

I must admit that my first reaction was one of healthy scepticism, not only because this has been official government policy for over a decade, but because I couldn't imagine why young Indians have anything to be upset about. There have been few indications of bad things happening anywhere in the country, so I couldn't think of any possible reason for their dissatisfaction. I even wondered if these students were being paid by India's enemies to discredit our honourable government. This didn't seem feasible though, given that these neighbouring countries can't possibly pay so many people every other year. They have already been accused of paying minorities, environmentalists, farmers, housewives, even members of the opposition, so I knew they couldn't have infinite financial resources.

There were also a few reports of the youth being hurt during these protests, along with rumours of police brutality. Now I have spent most of my life avoiding visits to Delhi unless I have had no choice, but I still can't bring myself to believe that the police of that state would stoop to this. How can any sane Indian associate violence or uncouth behaviour with officers from the country's capital? The only explanation I could come up with was that the students may have hurt themselves to gain sympathy, the way one of our honourable leaders often weeps during election rallies.

I read a few more of these reports from foreign journalists to try and understand what Indian students were angry about. The biggest complaint was about the minister in charge of education, followed by accusations of the system being corrupt. They also had a lot to say about a lack of job opportunities and the rising cost of living, which was the first time I had heard complaints like these being made in recent years. In fact, the last time there were protests about inflation, we had a leader who wasn't particularly qualified to understand these issues. Questions about the economy no longer make sense if the country is now being run by someone with a Masters in Entire Political Science.

I'm not saying the education system is perfect, by any means. If it were, the children of the Finance Minister, Commerce and Industry Minister, External Affairs Minister, Agriculture Minister, or Education Minister wouldn't have been forced to study abroad. Still, just because there have been repeated accusations of fraud, paper leaks, and systemic cheating in recent years doesn't imply that the system needs a complete overhaul either. The government has already shown how seriously it takes this issue by sending Air Force helicopters and aircraft to securely transport question papers. If that's not enough to pacify students, they're just being unreasonable.

Even their complaint about high levels of youth unemployment makes little sense. I am aware that some experts say around 40% of India's graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed, but this is surely an exaggerated figure. I see young people working for Blinkit, Zepto, Uber, Ola, Amazon, Swiggy, and Zomato all the time, and if these aren't safe, well-paying jobs with a secure future, India wouldn't have the world's fourth-largest economy today.

My hope is that these students come around to seeing the government for what it really is: a force for good, backed by some of the most educated, qualified people in India's history. Just because some of them have criminal cases or fraudulent degrees shouldn't taint all of Parliament. It's like saying all students are anti-national just because thousands of them are asking for transparency and accountability.

This is not how a healthy democracy works, and no young Indian with common sense can say that India isn't a healthy democracy. If it weren't, there would be Internet shutdowns during every protest, false cases against anyone questioning the government, blocking of content on social media platforms, biased reporting from journalists paid by businessmen or the government, and no freedom of speech. That's not what we're seeing anywhere in the country, is it?

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He can be contacted at www.lindsaypereira.com
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