Can protests bring about change? I have faced this question again and again over the past three months, especially since July, when young Indians from all corners of the country descended on Jantar Mantar in their thousands and forced the government to make the education minister resign.
The pompous boast that resignations did not take place under this government became a joke and the government itself was cornered to ultimately sacrifice Dharmendra Pradhan. Another matter that it tried to spin his resignation as a moral stand in the larger interest of saving the nation from the anarchy that the youth movement had unleashed. But the governmentโs capitulation was seen for what it was โ surrender in the face of determined resistance. That, in itself, was a big change.
This was not the first time the Modi government had to eat crow. The farmers of Punjab and Haryana showed tremendous grit and determination when they camped for a year on the borders of Delhi and forced the government to repeal the farm laws. That was, in many ways, a greater defeat for Modi, as it involved a real policy turnaround, unlike the Pradhan resignation, which may have been a symbolic victory but did not fundamentally alter anything.
Even before the farmersโ agitation came the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), led by Muslim women. The movement was halted by the Covid pandemic and faced brutal retaliation from state-backed Hindutva vigilantes, but it still managed to push back the government. The framing of rules under the CAA had to be delayed and the exclusionary NRC (National Register of Citizens) exercise put on hold.
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