Modi Govt Unlikely To Recover From Youth Revolt

There is a sense that this movement was in any case building up. It is going beyond the issue of education. There is a sense that there was pent up frustration among the youth on various counts. Behind all this is economic distress. The Modi government was all the time depending on only one strategy and that strategy was conceal the figures, conceal the truth from the people, let the people not be aware of what exactly is happening. Going to our unemployment has been a very major issue and the government has been turning a blind eye to it. Lack of employment opportunities for the youth, which is the primary cause of this movement. The government's efforts were to say that we are in power, we occupy the space of power. We will focus on the opposition and the sponsors will run this movement and will do as we say. They will run it as long as we want and the opposition political party space will be over. I think that Modi ji has got the news from somewhere that this movement has come to an end. It has become a people's movement. If they don't do anything about it, their seat will be in danger. He did not give a speech at the Parliament Session. He gave a speech at 12 am in the National Dump, recording his speech and presenting it to the country. The PM himself is realizing that whatever is happening is happening through his hands. And the movement is also happening through his hands. If anyone makes a compromise, his condition will be bad. But I feel that if this movement is insisting on the fact that there should be a Dharmen Pradhan Estifa, then tomorrow or today, there will be a Dharmen Pradhan Estifa. Hello and welcome to this special discussion on the wire. And we are going to talk about what else? Something that has really rocked the country, the youth, massive youth protest. protest that one has seen in the last couple of weeks and the manner in which this unprecedented protest by Gen Z that have come to Delhi the capital from all over India and also gathered in many other cities How it has indeed shaken the government and they have a whole set of demands which have to do with exam paper leak and they want the resignation of the education minister, unrelenting there and fundamentally there is a sense that this movement was in any case building up. It is going beyond the issue of education. There is a sense that there was pent up frustration among the youth on various counts on education, the way the education system was had broken on employment on freedom of expression and what have you so uh so what exactly is going on uh we have today with us a veteran politician a veteran leader uh mr yashwant sina former finance minister uh former external affairs minister in the watch by government uh we have yeshwan sir because he he is a he is a veteran of of indian politics so to say and he has seen many such youth uh movements uprisings uh in the last 50 years probably including the uh the jaiprakash movement uh and subsequently many other political such political movements started by the youth spontaneously so welcome to our show Mr. Gheshtan Sinha what do you make of all that has gone on for the last couple of weeks three weeks in in Delhi as well as in in the rest of the country in other cities where there's a spontaneous uprising and people are young people are just coming without any organization no organization build up the Cockerage Janata Parth we know how it got formed how it overnight got 22 million followers on Instagram Instagram is largely used by the very young Gen Z you know 16 to whatever 24 25 years of age. So sir, how do you assess what is going on? You said that I at one time was the finance minister of this country. And I'm going to make a point to you, which might surprise you, might surprise the people who are listening to this program, who are watching this program, and that is that behind all this is economic distress We very few people today are talking about the economy and the state of the economy today the government the government of India and the Prime Minister in the 12 years of their tenure in the government of India have lived on what? not on performance but on propaganda someday this had to blow over and that day has come today. Why am I saying it? Because I noticed that the Indian economy is in deep distress and it did not start yesterday. It did not start earlier this year. It started some years ago and the Modi government was all the time depending on only one strategy and that strategy was conceal the figures, conceal the truth from the people, let the people not be aware of what exactly is happening and carry on. Ultimately, we reached a stage where it started biting the people, especially the young people. Yeah. What is the most important issue before them? The most important issue is employment. Yeah. You know, I'm a retired politician, but I have no hesitation in admitting that even today 90% of the people who come to meet me, either older people or young people, they come to me for jobs. They come to me for jobs. But we are sitting here for 5 years, 8 years, and they come to us for jobs. So unemployment has been a very major issue and the government has been turning a blind eye to it. Therefore, the youth of the country under whatever pretext came out in the streets. It has spread like wildfire throughout the country. I am told today that the town is 800 cities, small and big, where this movement is taking place. And I am reminded of the situation when the JP movement started, where it was almost a similar thing. Education was in a mess. Employment was non-existent. And suddenly there was a trigger and the movement started. Similarly, this time the movement, the trigger came from the Cockroach Janata Party And because they provided a platform and in other parts of the country so it is to my mind basically economic distress lack of employment opportunities for the youth which has which is the primary cause of this movement. Sir, you mentioned the JP movement. And you rightly said that the JP movement was also preceded by a broken education system and a lot of youth unemployment. And it started randomly from in Bihar, from the, you know, different states and uh how do you accept compare what happened during jp movement and what is happening now i'll i'll elaborate my question sir and it was actually street protest and and there was a kind of structure uh the the movement gathered kind of traction and it gathered scale also subsequently around organizations, opposition parties etc. But the present movement sir, it actually started on social media as a satire, Cockroach Janata Party following a comment by the Chief Justice of India where he talked about the unemployed likened them to cockroaches uh very unfortunate remark and as as per abhijit dipke who started the cockroach janata party within no time 22 million followers came on instagram there was no organization build up there was no real organization and that Suddenly, within a month, it translated into people in the streets, people coming from all over the country, without any organization, spending their own money and gathering in Ganthar Mantar, gathering all around Delhi, gathering in Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, South, now all over the place. Sir, how do you compare the triggers? Trigger in the process. I'm more interested in the process, sir. Both situations were when the GP movement started in 1975. You remember that it started as a student movement. Im Gujarat came to Bihar. There was a lot of dissatisfaction at that time, especially the youth.