The Unheeded Satyagraha

There has been a simmering discontent within me since Friday – a helplessness at finding my daily newspaper didn’t contain the news I was hoping it would. Or if there was that news, it was in a frustratingly paltry paragraph tucked away in an unassuming corner of the paper.

I have been keeping an eye out for daily updates on Mr Wangchuk’s indefinite hunger strike, with most of the information flowing in through news pages like The Print and Beetroot News on Instagram. Mainstream news channels and print media (much to my chagrin since I almost always depend on newspapers to keep abreast of current affairs) have been deliberately silent or disinterested – it is difficult to say which of these scenarios is more concerning.
Here is a man who, at great personal cost, is fasting till the Government acknowledges the pleas of students and pushes for the resignation of our education minister. An education minister who “is making commendable efforts towards the implementation of the National Education Policy”, or so tweeted our Prime Minister when he wished Mr Pradhan on his birthday – a mere few days after the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) had to be re-held across the country after the question paper of the original test was leaked. The blatant silence on the death of 20 students who committed suicide, not to mention the trauma caused by the pressures of a re-exam, juxtaposed against speaking up to show support to the Minister who should have been held accountable instead of publicly praised, is a veritable slap in the face.

The images and videos being circulated today are heartbreaking. The most moving was that of a father whose son had committed suicide after the paper leak. Drenched in rain and sweat, emotions swirling in his eyes and almost choking his voice as he told a story of how the broken system in India became too much for his son. His determination to stand there with the rest, on the one-month death anniversary of his child, just so that his second son did not have to face the same system, was enough to melt even a cold-stone heart.
Students weeping in the face of a State that has turned on them, protesters whose voices have become hoarse and weary after screaming so long to be heard, ominous mists of tear gas rising up in the air, police with their blackened name tags and lathis and batons, pulling and pushing man, woman alike with an indignity that is not examined – it looks like an India where dystopia has taken firm root.

And for what? The obvious answer seems shockingly simple – that this government does not think the demands of accountability are credible enough for a reply. And that deploying the full force of CPRF against its citizens is a much easier option than, God forbid, engaging in a dialogue.

That would be setting a precedent, isn’t it? And what is more dangerous than being accountable to the public for the misdeeds, incompetence and inefficiency of your ministers? This silence is not new.
We witnessed it with Brij Bhushan; we faced this wall against the fires of Manipur. We have repeatedly seen it when important laws are passed in Parliament without even the pretence of a debate.
The sweeping mandate allows them to get away with this with impunity. Meanwhile, it is the pillars of democracy that are lying in rubble – an ineffective opposition and a frustrated section of the public left with no other mechanism to be heard than to take to the streets and shout themselves hoarse.
From proudly proclaiming ourselves to be the world’s biggest democracy to now existing in a quasi-democracy of a complacent citizenry – we have fallen so far down the ladder our founding leaders had hoped for a free India.

One of the most concerning outcomes of this protest has been to lay bare the ridiculous, logically fallacious narratives that usually emerge – narratives that seem all too familiar for those of us who have dared, however tentatively, to ask questions of this Government.

I have been sharing or reposting stories relevant to what is happening in Delhi and the responses I have been receiving to some of them, while common, show a deeper crack in our society.

They are all anti-Hindu, not protestors. Grow up, dude! Act like a Hindu

Not even 10 people there who are protesting know the full form of NEET.

Sab Anti Modi and Anti Hindu hai

Your so-called Sonam is a stupid scientist.

It has become a political agenda.

Protest is not the way… CJP won’t do shit

These are just some of the responses I have received – all for sharing posts and content that is vetted and reports of happenings on the ground.

I am tempted to dissect them in detail.

The unilateral accusation any person who questions the government today faces is being branded an anti-national and anti-Hindu. It is to the credit of the BJP’s extremely competent PR model that they have managed to convince the broader public that asking questions of a divine leader is sacrilege.
The anti-Hindu tag to this protest is largely due to a comedian attending the protest and making an insensitive joke about “Sita-ki-pati” and “Nita-ki-pati”. A comedian (never mind all the other people who are turning up in support, in thousands) came and told a joke. People laughed. I consider it more of a joke that people think a religion which has survived 3000-odd years can be small enough that a joke caused it more offence than a man dressed like Hanuman dancing suppliantly on the streets of Delhi. Somebody sang Islamic songs, and the protest became anti-Hindu. Again, never mind the songs like Ma Thu Je Salam being blared repeatedly at the protest site – that single song matters more.

The other ridiculous narrative used to discredit this protest has been videos circulating of people unable to expand the abbreviation of NEET and CBSE. Is this the narrow criteria that should be used to make one a golden protester? Never mind that for one video where one is not able to answer the question, there is one more who confidently answers it right and, in turn, asks the interviewer the intent behind that line of questioning.
A lot of the participants have turned up, not specifically for the NEET exam fiasco, but because they resonate with the need to hear answers and see some sort of action from the government that the system will be fixed. The competition in India is brutal, jobs are limited and competitive exams are a Hunger Games tournament – add atrocious paper leaks to this mix, and the whirlpool of prospects becomes even more bloody. Shaming somebody for not knowing what an abbreviation stands for, putting their entire desire for answers to another test, is just cruel.

Sonam is a stupid scientist – if a person who has won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, won multiple awards for simple, sustainable innovations and has dedicated his life to his hometown can be called a stupid scientist, who is an intelligent one?
One can question his politics, his agenda, his ideology – but not his competence. You might disagree with him on his stance and motivation, but how can that take away from his demands? He is doing more just by being on the ground and taking a stance than I or you, who are here, hiding our faces behind a digital screen.
There have been innumerable comparisons to Anna Hazare and how Wangchuk falls short – but does one have to be a Mahatma Gandhi for their voice to have merit? A core tenet of democracy is that the everyday man has a voice. And when there are huge crowds that have rallied around that voice, it becomes the duty of the State to listen and engage.

The next argument that I find bizarre: This movement has become political.
Of course it is political! The demand is for the education minister to resign. And a broader reform in educational policy. How can one separate politics from an ask like that? When mass protests of this size happen, there will be attempts by Opposition parties to appropriate the stage for their own use. Politicians with dubious motivations will turn up – so will people who genuinely believe in the cause.
When there is no engagement from the ruling political party, the protest must grasp at straws and take in support from where it comes. Somebody needs to raise this issue in Parliament, and it is now quite evident that my BJP Member of Parliament is not going to be the one to do it.

Coming full circle, let’s address the other face of this protest besides Wangchuk – the Cockroach Janata Party.
They have been derided, mocked and demeaned. The CJP is not a political party, with election promises and manifestos to be delivered. They are an online, parody movement born out of a tasteless remark made by the Chief Justice of India.
Their job is to raise issues (for now) and give a platform for voices – and they have done precisely that. When we ask so little of our elected representatives, so little of our Opposition, so little of the State – help me understand this righteous demand for a two-month-old online group to constantly prove themselves.

I am confronted with friends and family uncomfortably asking why I have suddenly started sharing political content, when so far I have only put out photos of my travel and hobbies. The last time I felt this deeply uncomfortable about the happenings in this country was during the CAA protests, when the only way I could contribute was through my thoughts, a pen and paper. It is evident that I am not alone in this frustration. Today’s unprecedented gathering despite the threat of lathi charge & imprisonment, rain, and humid weather shows that the about-to-come-of-age section of society is not happy. Our neighbouring countries cannot be more of a cautionary tale. Regimes have toppled because people in power failed to heed the anger of youth. The lesson is clear: address the anger before it is too late.

India is a nation that was born from hunger strikes, student protests and satyagraha. These are the methods our forefathers used, to great & proud effect, to force India out of colonial clutches. For a democratically elected government to so blatantly ignore the marches on the street, to not allow any criticism against its ways of working, is to go against the very examples our nation has set for the entire world in the past.