What the future holds

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 ldquoNo one knowsrdquo says Sidharth Bhatia founding editor of The WireldquoThe 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 accountabilityrdquo Bhatia saysAccording to the India Employment Report 2024 brought out by the International Labour Organisation and the Institute for Human Development nearly 83 per cent of Indiarsquos unemployed are young people The jobless rate for graduates was 291 per cent almost nine times higher than the 34 per cent for those who canrsquot read or write Even after you put in years and years of hard work to become a graduate if yoursquore a young person in India you are more likely to be unemployed than an illiterate personAnirban Bhattacharya Sidharth Bhatia and Rheea MukherjeeBhatia notes that the protestors are a generation of voters with Gen Z making up 28 per cent of the entire Indian population ldquoIrsquom 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 hersquos Prime Minister Narendra Modi completely confused and befuddled about what to do Donrsquot forget that these people are voters You donrsquot want to anger such large numbers and demographics And that certainly is playing on his mindrdquoEconomist Ajit Ranade believes that a fracas over NEET has been brewing for a while ldquoSome states like Tamil Nadu have been wanting to do away with NEET itself They wanted the exam to be statespecific Also note that there are other allIndia 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 examsldquoIf 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 therersquos enough background stuff happening plus we already have triedandtested technology to ensure mishaps donrsquot happenrdquo Ranade notesAjit Ranade economistldquoThere is a lot of nuance missing in CJP stillrdquo says journalist and author Rheea Mukherjee ldquoBut I donrsquot expect any kind of movement mdash especially where we are right now mdash to have come from an advanced placerdquoMukherjee argues that the unity we are seeing today will set precedent for years to come ldquoThe 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 identitydriven caste supremacy and religious supremacydriven Our threshold and baseline is going to changerdquoThere is a massconsciousness that this movement has developed which will remain in the public memory for a long time Mukherjee believesAnother 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 20rsquos ldquoChalo Sansadrdquo marchldquoPeople are questioning the CJP Thatrsquos a good thing as long as it is in good faith Thatrsquos why this movement is becoming more and more leaderless But at the same time we have to remember that the same anger and suspicion has to be directed towards the governmentrdquo Mukherjee addsAn activist who was part of a massive student movement is Anirban Bhattacharya who was arrested in the 2016 sedition case at JNU ldquoThe 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 timerdquo he saysItrsquos 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 ldquoA lot has changed since 2016 Of course the government hasnrsquot 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 lsquoHar cheez yaad rakha jayega Everything will be rememberedrsquo which is a line from Amir Azizrsquos poem from antiCAA 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 importantrdquoThe most important thing this movement will achieve is Bhattacharya believes that it will plant memories of solidarity in Gen Zrsquos public imagination ldquoFor 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 mdash itrsquos very important for every generation to come facetoface with that kind of empathy and solidarityldquoThose 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 twoway street and it is only forged on groundrdquo Bhattacharya signs offWhy is everything lsquoGodi mediarsquoThe 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 emergedPICINSTAGRAMrakeshvarmaiasOn July 20 a reporter from a Marathi news channel found himself surrounded by protesters chanting ldquoloser loserrdquo at Mumbairsquos protests This illustrates our youthrsquos tendency to label every journalist as ldquogodi mediardquo 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 journalistsAt the Shivaji Park protest in Mumbai a journalist from the Sunday midday team was first pointed at and called ldquoOh Godi mediardquo by one of the other protestors A second later another pointed to her ID and said ldquoOh no shersquos from midday Phir theek hai Then itrsquos finerdquo Apart from the slight stress she felt in the publicrsquos opinion of her profession it is incredibly sad that there is no belief in true journalism The youth while being openminded on everything seem to have lost their faith and closed their minds to the press at large