What has unfolded showed how the BJP was completely out of sync with a new generation that worries about good education, good jobs and good infrastructure
Let there be no mistake. India has changed with the dramatic protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and in the various cities across India that have led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as the education minister – a key demand of the protestors gathered under the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The largely peaceful protests bring hope and light after a very long and dark period in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We can safely say that a darkness has lifted at last. The nation must rejoice that despite all the repressive measures used by the government, not only in New Delhi but also in BJP-ruled States across India, the lamp of democracy burns bright under the guard of the youth of the country. At a time when the Opposition parties failed, it is the youth that showed the way and brought Narendra Modi and entire the RSS-led establishment to its knees. There should be no doubt that this is history in the making.
What is unfolding before us now will be analysed for years and decades to come and showcase India as a nation that stood up and fought against a leader who had captured everything – the institutions, investigative agencies, elected representatives, businessmen, the media, education and anyone who dared raise a voice in dissent. Some years ago, the widely respected historian Romila Thapar had said that history is unlikely to be kind to Narendra Modi. Who would have thought that that judgement would come so soon and that Modi would meet his Waterloo while he would still be in power, blind to the growing discontent and plain anger against his regime that would burst open in the way it did. Whatever the history books say, the Gen Z of India have already made clear their contempt for Modi and his government.
It should be clear now to anyone who can see that the BJP government at the Centre has been severely diminished. Even if Narendra Modi somehow survives, still relying on police brutality of the kind seen in New Delhi, or the army of social media agents that the BJP thought it had perfected under its IT cell, or indeed the Hindu-Muslim divide that he has so far fed on, he will stay on as a pale shadow of himself – shamed, stunted and a caricature of his former self who will wonder to the very end: how did this tsunami hit when every possible source of discontent was controlled, sealed and sanitised?
But old habits die hard. Such is the government’s dependence and faith on its PR machinery that even in the midst of growing student protests, its managers sent out emails to recruit volunteers to speak against the student protestors. The protestors have exposed these attempts, boldly rejecting huge sums of money offered to them to write posts against their compatriots, and instead outed these efforts. The truckloads of stones pictured at the protest sites, the heavily armed police that sought to barricade Jantar Mantar, the key protest site in New Delhi, and the physical force used against students indicated that every tried and tested trick in the BJP book failed this time.
In fact, every pillar on which the BJP has built its strength was actively demolished by the protests so that while the focus remained on demanding the exit of Pradhan, a ministerial exit that the BJP has never succumbed to in the past under pressure, the colour and flavour of the protest was to celebrate the diversity of India. Slogans of Jai Bhim, of communal harmony particularly between Hindus and Muslims and a celebration of the Sikh tradition of langar at the Gurudwaras showcased India at its best. It also showcased how far behind and backward the BJP agenda stood, completely out of sync with a new generation that worries not about love jihad but about good education, good jobs and good infrastructure.
Where do the BJP-RSS go from here? There comes a time when the leader becomes a liability. It is not clear if the BJP has reached that stage with Modi, particularly since the rest of the party is virtually hollowed out by the one-man dictatorial style of the Prime Minister. The central challenge for the BJP here is that Modi and his establishment is so much sold on their own Kool-Aid that they have nothing else to offer. Every act is a strategy to overwhelm the opposition. Every attempt to communicate is a new pack of varnish but the paint job has gone on for so long that it has damaged the skin itself. There is nothing in the bag anymore but the next poor advice from the next PR agent to be rolled out via a teleprompter. It is almost impossible for one person to recover from this sinkhole. After Pradhan quit, the Prime Minister took to Instagram for a late-night message to young audiences, which became the butt of ridicule by many among the Gen Z. The painfully long pauses were likely intended to signal gravitas, worry and concern but they came to be seen as one more trick by a leader who is out of depth with the key issues of the day.
There has been an army of communications consultants outside the establishment telling the nation how good a communicator the Prime Minister is. But what they never understood is that reliance on hollow communications in the absence of subject matter knowledge, commitment to principles and care and concern for ordinary citizens is a grave error that brings sudden collapse. Yesterday’s praise will not wipe out today’s contempt. Every word comes back to haunt. When communications are reduced to the desire to win at all costs, to impress and to score a point even when you know you do not have a point, the game is lost. There is merit in giving in and learning something new from the audience. These are the subtle clues to good communications. It is too late for this government to learn these now.
The Billion Press (The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR)
