Skip to main content

From Renaissance to Resignation: How the NEET Protest Lost Its Relevance

Image
By


 ​The frequent buzzword across social media and newspapers is the Jantar Mantar protest. Large numbers of young people are protesting for their future. The present incident was fueled by Chief Justice Surya Kant’s controversial remark calling protesting youth 'a cockroach'. Whether such remarks by the Chief Justice were appropriate or not is the subject of fierce debate. But it must be noted that protests and hunger strikes have a long legacy in India’s history. It traces back to our Father of the Nation, as this was his prescribed strategy for meeting just needs. Yet, here we are, still caught up in the affairs of solving protests.

​The agenda of the protest is to hold the education ministry accountable and demand the resignation of the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. Here is where the protest loses me—not because I support the BJP.

​The cause of the protest is the NEET-UG paper leak and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is an autonomous body that takes full responsibility and accountability for the examination. The NTA works under the Ministry of Education, but being an independent body, the Ministry has no direct control; thus, the ministry cannot be solely held accountable. Therefore, the resignation of the education minister is not going to solve the actual issue. The agenda of the protest has made the movement more political, and when people are fighting for political needs or change, we cannot consider it fully for the social good. This doesn't mean that the protest has to be crushed because of its political nature. Fundamental rights have assured each and every citizen the right to express themselves and fight for their rights without affecting others in the most peaceful way.

​However, the nature of the protest has changed the perspective through which we used to see this specific protest. At the initial stage, it was a protest for the students' future, as this one exam is going to decide their future. They study for hours, compromising their mental health, and they reach a point of no return. They leave many things behind, and cracking the exam becomes their life or the very reason for their dreams' existence. Later, the result changes the game: a good score means admission to a dream college. And when these standards aren't met, they end their lives. In this depressing situation filled with such stress, paper leaks trigger them in the most extreme ways. When the situation is this serious, we need a protest. When the protest started at Jantar Mantar, honestly, it felt like a change. Maybe this protest would be able to rectify all the past paper leaks. Its agenda and reasons sounded right.

​However, the protest took a dramatic turn when it began to move swiftly toward politics. The nature of the agenda changed from a "renaissance of Indian education" to the removal of a minister, and indirectly, the protest started to gain support from the opposition. This was a gruesome turn, because everyone started a game of 20-20 over dead students. A protest that began for students gained the opposition's support because it made the system accountable. As the government is also part of the system, the protest agenda got hijacked, and now it has lost its relevance

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Indian Paradox : Democracy, Communism and National Identity

By
 On the 10th October 2008, the historic deal was signed between India and the USA. A landmark occasion as India began to be recognised as a nuclear weapon state, a privilege that enabled gain access to critical technologies. The core of agreement focuses on the non proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The deal opens the door for import of Uranium which further leads to peaceful and civilian use of nuclear energy. The deal also strengthens the future image of India at international level. However, being democratic country with a political instability as a feature of Manmohan Singh's government took a unique turn. Criticism was expressed in parliament but the irony is that the opposition party led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji supported the deal but coalition parties threatened the cabinet for withdrawing the support. In my opinion,this is a common situation but the issue that concerns me most is the fact that primary opposition came from communist party also known as "le...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Great Depression

By
  Th ere is lots to write about American events and among them is the Great Depression', that took place in the United States of America during the 1930s. The long and widespread depression of the 20th century was started in 1929 and lasted till the late 1930s. This economic turmoil was started after the fall of stock prices began in early September 1929 and this turmoil became worldwide news on 29th October 1929 when the stock market was crashing , this day is known as Black Tuesday. Between 1929 to 1932 the stock market lost 90% of its value and it takes 25 years to recover. This massive event lost the confidence of investors and even those who have not invested money also lose because banks invested their money from saving account. The economic output was $105 billion, at today's price it is estimated $1 trillion. Depression proved that the classical theory of Adam Smith called Laissez Faire was proven failed that was associated with President Herbert Hoover...
Post a Comment
Read more

Climate Change: a great crises that we will defeat.

By
  “Climate change is a terrible problem, and it needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.”-Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft. Do you experience intense heat more often than your parents and grandparents? It must be a ‘NO’. During those days heat was not severe and if we analyze the scenario 20 years ago, people were able to live without air conditioners. But why are we experiencing this weather pattern? Well, this is persuaded by human activities that cause climate change. As per as United Nations, climate change is regarded as one of the greatest crises in the world. Planet Earth emits certain amount of carbon but its natural mechanism regulates overall temperature. But these things began to take dramatic turn when humans began to hinder over earth mechanism. With the advent of industrial revolution, humans were researching on striving for new technologies that provoked higher economic growth. This progressive philosophy remodeled into reckless chaos to exploit earth. ...
Post a Comment
Read more