Now Reading: Student protests echo history as centre faces crisis of legitimacy
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Student protests echo history as centre faces crisis of legitimacy
On July 20, thousands of students marched on Jantar Mantar in Delhi protesting the NEET-UG paper leak, which forced cancellation of the exam taken by over 20 lakh aspirants. Delhi Police and…
The Story in Brief
On July 20, thousands of students marched on Jantar Mantar in Delhi protesting the NEET-UG paper leak, which forced cancellation of the exam taken by over 20 lakh aspirants. Delhi Police and RAF personnel used tear gas, lathis and pellets; a 19-year-old student, Sahil Lochab, was blinded in one eye. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, writing in The Hindu, argued that Home Minister Amit Shah either authorised the violence or was incompetent, and should resign. Gandhi noted that the government has ordered no inquiry, refused parliamentary debate, and deployed trolls to intimidate young women protesters and their families.
The article drew parallels with colonial rule (1876 lowering of ICS exam age) and the Emergency (1976 detention of students under MISA), warning that suppressing youth grievances with force creates revolutions, not stability. It accused Prime Minister Modi of being out of touch, making a video “forgiving” the youth for exercising their right to protest, while the crackdown continues. Gandhi pledged that the opposition will hold the government accountable.
The Indian Opinion
The usual and lazy reading of these protests is to dismiss them as opposition-engineered or foreign-funded. But that misses the deeper rot: a generation that sees its future sold for paper leaks and its voice met with lathis has stopped believing the system works for them. The real test is not whether the protests fade in a week, but whether the government can admit error, on the NEET paper leak, on the police conduct, on the tone of contempt from the highest offices. If it cannot, it will have learned nothing from 1876 or 1976.
Sources (2): thehindu.com, thehindu.com (2)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
