What the future holds

Protests in Delhi have been going on since June 6, the day Abhijeet Dipke landed in India. pic/pti

The streets today are full of optimism after the resignation of Education Minister Dhramendra Pradhan. Lakhs of students are stepping into the streets with the hope for a better tomorrow. What change will this protest bring us? "No one knows," says Sidharth Bhatia, founding editor of The Wire.

"The youth is genuinely frustrated. I mean, what kind of opportunities do they have? What kind of a future are they looking at? With this movement, the dam has burst. And there is no leader, no manifesto [in the movement]. Now that the youth have achieved their main objective [resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan], Gen Z will get more strength to demand accountability," Bhatia says.

According to the India Employment Report 2024, brought out by the International Labour Organisation and the Institute for Human Development, nearly 83 per cent of India's unemployed are young people. The jobless rate for graduates was 29.1 per cent, almost nine times higher than the 3.4 per cent for those who can't read or write. Even after you put in years and years of hard work to become a graduate, if you're a young person in India, you are more likely to be unemployed than an illiterate person.

Anirban Bhattacharya, Sidharth Bhatia and Rheea Mukherjee

Bhatia notes that the protestors are a generation of voters, with Gen Z making up 28 per cent of the entire Indian population. "I'm really shocked at paramilitary forces being called out to inhibit protests. Is this how you treat the people of your country who are asking genuine questions? My analysis is that he's [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] completely confused and befuddled about what to do. Don't forget that these people are voters. 
You don't want to anger such large numbers and demographics. And that certainly is playing on his mind."

Economist Ajit Ranade believes that a fracas over NEET has been brewing for a while. "Some states like Tamil Nadu have been wanting to do away with NEET itself. They wanted the exam to be state-specific. Also, note that there are other all-India exams, like the JEE or the UPSC exam, which seem to be less vulnerable to these kinds of leaks. It just shows that we have tried and tested which technology has worked, and for many years. So, a question does arise about the mishandling of NEET exams.

"If you ask me, will there be a policy change? I think yes. This is a very strong movement which will lead to a change. It may not happen immediately, but there's enough background stuff happening, plus we already have tried-and-tested technology to ensure mishaps don't happen," Ranade notes.

Ajit Ranade, economist

"There is a lot of nuance missing in CJP still," says journalist and author Rheea Mukherjee, "But I don't expect any kind of movement - especially where we are right now - to have come from an advanced place."

Mukherjee argues that the unity we are seeing today will set precedent for years to come. "The potential over here is that actual citizens of India, our communities, start to trust each other more. For years now, we have been a severely mistrusting society, which is identity-driven, caste supremacy and religious supremacy-driven. Our threshold and baseline is going to change."

There is a mass-consciousness that this movement has developed which will remain in the public memory for a long time, Mukherjee believes.

Another confounding aspect of the movement is that it only keeps growing despite the CJP facing multiple controversies. Scores of protestors say that they are protesting to support students and not the CJP. Their controversies include spokesperson Saurav Das admitting to being a former Modi supporter at the age of 15; and former spokesperson Vijeta Dahiya making transphobic comments and being relieved of his duties after he was seen eating a burger as protestors were being lathi charged during July 20's "Chalo Sansad" march.

"People are questioning the CJP. That's a good thing, as long as it is in good faith. That's why this movement is becoming more and more leader-less. But at the same time, we have to remember that the same anger and suspicion has to be directed towards the government," Mukherjee adds.

An activist who was part of a massive student movement is Anirban Bhattacharya, who was arrested in the 2016 sedition case at JNU. "The movement is against systemic injustice and is an expression of frustration against institutions that are failing them. It is a good sign that it also asks difficult questions to its own leadership as well from time to time," he says.

It's been a decade since those protests first happened. And yet, a lot of the things students are protesting about remain the same. Can this movement really bring a change? "A lot has changed since 2016. Of course, the government hasn't changed. But each movement builds over the last one. Change happens step by step. The slogans of azadi are from the 2016 protests. Just now, [singer] Arijit Singh has made a statement saying, ‘Har cheez yaad rakha jayega [Everything will be remembered],' which is a line from Amir Aziz's poem from anti-CAA agitation days called Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega. Youth like Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam from that struggle are still in jail. These memories are very important."

The most important thing this movement will achieve is, Bhattacharya believes, that it will plant memories of solidarity in Gen Z's public imagination. "For many of them, this is their first public memory of being on the ground. One may have opinions online, but solidarity is forged on ground. For instance, someone like Junaid Bhai [Mohammad Junaid], who is serving food and water at Jantar Mantar - it's very important for every generation to come face-to-face with that kind of empathy and solidarity.

"Those instances remain in the memory far longer than a particular protest site or a particular movement. If and when tomorrow
, a Dalit is facing atrocities or a Muslim house is being bulldozed for no reason, those memories must remain with the youth of our country. Because solidarity is a two-way street and it is only forged on ground," Bhattacharya signs off.

Why is everything ‘Godi media'?

The ongoing protests have drawn extensive media coverage, with many media personalities going on the ground despite facing police action, such as Samdish Bhatia. However, upon closer examination of the protests, another trend has emerged.

PIC/INSTAGRAM@rakeshvarmaias

On July 20, a reporter from a Marathi news channel found himself surrounded by protesters chanting, "loser, loser" at Mumbai's protests. This illustrates our youth's tendency to label every journalist as "godi media". While the term implies that these media outlets support the current government and do not question its actions, this incident reflects a broader trend among the youth, who are extending this label to include all media journalists.

At the Shivaji Park protest in Mumbai, a journalist from the Sunday mid-day team was first pointed at and called, "Oh Godi media!" by one of the other protestors. A second later, another pointed to her ID and said, "Oh no, she's from mid-day. Phir theek hai. [Then it's fine]" Apart from the slight stress she felt in the public's opinion of her profession, it is incredibly sad that there is no belief in true journalism. The youth, while being open-minded on everything, seem to have lost their faith and closed their minds to the press at large.