The anger of young Indians

Yesterday, Narendra Modi’s Indian government declared the student protest – which had seen demonstrators occupy Jantar Mantar, the symbolic centre of protests in New Delhi, for three weeks – to be ‘over’, after Health Minister J P Nadda met with representatives of the movement. But the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ is far from satisfied and has, in the meantime, become a thorn in the side of the Modi government, which has built much of its support on the image of a leader who represents the aspirations of India’s new middle class. The protests began as a reaction against the system of rigged university entrance exams and the ongoing ‘paper leak’ scandals – the unauthorised disclosure of exam questions – which have turned the dream of social mobility into corruption and favouritism. The name was indirectly given to them by the Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court, Surya Kant, who recently compared young unemployed people involved in activism and journalism to cockroaches and parasites.

Leading the initiative are Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old expert in political communication and former student at Boston University, and, above all, Sonam Wangchuk, an environmental engineer who became a national celebrity following his campaign for Ladakh’s rights. Wangchuk has been on hunger strike for more than twenty days: on Saturday he was forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar and hospitalised, but yesterday he announced that he would continue ‘to the bitter end’, until the Modi government provides reassurances regarding the education system and, most critically, the issue surrounding the latest national entrance exam for medical schools, which has been marred by allegations of irregularities. The movement is calling for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and compensation for the families of students who took their own lives following the scandal. The government is responding with evictions and downplaying the issue. But the lesson Modi should learn is that the anger of young people should be addressed through dialogue and mediation.