Ajayan |
Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.
- Otto von Bismarck
Irreparable. Irreversible. That's what the once-indomitable Narendra Modi now appears to be after a handful of young people, unburdened by ideology, political baggage, or fear of central agencies, brought the Union government to its knees. The climbdown followed weeks of outright denial and Modi's unwavering defence of his Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, choosing political expediency over political morality until retreat became inevitable.
No barrage of midnight posts on X or Instagram, nor the hurried promise of a committee to redesign the examination system, can erase the damage. The government squandered the moment when decisive action alone could have restored public trust: removing Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Instead, it chose denial, delay and diversion. By the time it blinked, the political cost had become irreversible. The irony is impossible to miss. Pradhan, the son of a veteran Odisha politician, first shot to prominence by spearheading a student agitation against examination irregularities.
Jantar Mantar became more than a protest venue; it emerged as the signpost of a spontaneous youth uprising that gathered momentum while the conventional Opposition looked the other way. Strikingly, there was little political sloganeering. The demands were precise, focused and uncompromising, proof that Gen Z knew exactly what it wanted. The movement gained even greater moral force when Sonam Wangchuk joined it with an indefinite fast, transforming a students' protest into a larger national call for accountability.
The handling of the protest was, in truth, a mishandling. Pellets, tear-gas shells, bullets and brute force were unleashed on young people whose only weapon was a genuine grievance. Their voices were loud, urgent and impossible to ignore; but those in authority chose not to hear. Whether the BJP chooses to introspect on how Amit Shah and his team, with the backing of the RSS, allowed the crisis to spiral is an internal matter. For the rest of the country, the episode stands as a stark reminder of a government that sacrificed political morality, spurned the legitimate concerns of its youth, and clung to the illusion that its citadel was impregnable.
Had it not been for the strategic intervention of Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi, who deftly turned what was billed as veteran Mallikarjun Kharge's birthday gathering into a protest march towards the Prime Minister's residence, the Congress would have remained largely absent from the unfolding movement. The move reportedly ruffled feathers within the Opposition alliance, with some allies unhappy that the Congress had stolen the political spotlight. Yet, at a time when most parties were struggling to find their footing, Rahul Gandhi's visible presence and sister Priyanka's combative rhetoric finally aligned the Congress with the aggrieved youth. It may have come late, but it restored to the party a measure of political relevance.
The campaign to discredit the so-called "Cockroach Party", a label born from the Chief Justice of India's remark, followed a familiar script. Its members were branded "anti-national," "foreign-funded" even "terrorists." Yet the propaganda failed to bury the truth. Beneath the government's lectures and hollow sermons lay a genuine anxiety among the youth: a system that is broken from the very bottom, beginning with the examination process itself.
Who financed the so-called "cockroaches" is a question of little consequence. Their greatest achievement was not in revealing their backers but in forcing the Modi government to admit that the system itself needs repair. The larger lesson is unmistakable: an apolitical, digitally connected generation can erupt without warning, beyond the control of parties or ideologies. It is a warning to Narendra Modi that political invincibility has limits, and an equally stark reminder to the Opposition that history rarely waits for those content merely to follow rather than lead.
Tailpiece: If Narendra Modi was humbled by "cockroaches" the biggest comical reaction was that of the CPI(M). Its general secretary MA Baby, channelled Basheer's immortal Ettukaali Mammunju, claimed “babyishly”, as some within the party whisper, that the uprising was orchestrated by the CJP and the SFI. Few can rival such comic self-importance. As his party steadily slips into irrelevance, Baby seems determined to win at least one battle, that for the most absurd political claim.
