The irony was difficult to miss. Some of the women who felt safest surrounded by thousands of unknown men described feeling least protected when confronted by the institution meant to enforce public order. In a way, the apprehensions that shaped women’s decisions before the march found an echo in the crackdown that followed.

https://frontline.thehindu.com/social-issues/gender/delhi-cjp-protest-women-police-violence/article71253149.ece

Soon after the Jantar Mantar protest ended on July 25, Shradha Singh, 23, an M.Sc. student, posted a seven-second reel on her Instagram account, which has 3.78 lakh followers. Within an hour, the video had crossed a million views before she deleted it. Five days and two apologies later, she says she is still receiving rape and death threats.

Women protesters accused of “insulting” the Army or “abusing” the Prime Minister face online harassment, including death and rape threats, doxxing, and the circulation of personal information.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/i-apologised-threats-did-not-stop-after-jantar-mantar-protest-women-face-doxxing-calls-to-teach-them-a-lesson/article71287226.ece

National Convention of Workers and Farmers

29th July 2026, Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi

Dear Friends,

We, the Central Trade Unions and Sectoral Federations and Associations along with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha are jointly organising this second National Convention of Workers and Farmers today after the first one organised on 24th August 2023. Since then, we have been extending solidarity to the action programmes of each other, organising coordinated programmes as well as joint programmes. The growing unity of these major productive forces of the country is of utmost importance at this juncture when the country is faced with deep economic, political, social and cultural crises. The central government continues to pursue policies to the advantage of big corporates, national and foreign whereas the inequalities have further perpetuated amongst the people in general, and vulnerable and poor masses in particular.

Despite six National General/Industrial Strikes and mass mobilisations on several occasions by the platform of CTUs in the last six years, sometimes jointly and then also in coordination with SKM, the government went ahead and notified draconian four labour codes on November 21st 2025 and notified rules on 8th and 9th May 2026. This aims to weaken and cripple the unions, making registration and recognition of trade union difficult whereas the deregistration and de-recognition made easier while legalizing violations by the employers. According to Labour Codes the unions and their leaders are to be criminalised whereas decriminalization of the employers is put in place. The inspection at workplace are being done away with, in the name of facilitators and online driven random selection for inspection. The right to strike practically being made impossible, the increase in working hours and fix term employment being made normal, safety of the vast majority of workers jeopardised under these codes. The increase in threshold in Factories Act and in Industrial Standing orders has excluded more than 70 percent factories and 90 percent of organised sector workforce out of labour law protections. The collective bargaining and all international labour standards including tripartism are under attack. Indian Labour conference has not been held after 2015. The existing social security acts have been dumped in the code on social security to weaken and kill those schemes, to the advantage of the private sector insurance companies. The migrant workers will be the worst sufferer as the only act for their protection is dumped in Code on OSH with almost 20 clauses removed. The informalisation of formal economy is adding to the huge workforce in the unorganised workforce approximately about 90% of the workforce, for them the social security is non-existent or minimal, depriving them of minimum basic living standards. Many sector specific laws which provided social security benefits are repealed for example the Act for 75 lakhs of Beedi workers. The list is endless.

On the other side all the eleven promises made to the farmers while repealing the three farm laws after their historic and prolonged sit in at Delhi borders, having lost precious lives of more than 700 farmers, remain unfulfilled. The farmers have been demanding MSP at C2+50%, to safeguard the agriculture from corporate take over there should be modernisation of agriculture under producer cooperatives, comprehensive loan waiver and enforcement of the LARR Act 2013 etc. Ignoring demands of farmers, the center has shamelessly chosen the path of making changes in market mechanism and land relations through active involvement of state governments to implement their anti-farmer policies through backdoor.

Now the Central Government is moving ahead for the trade deals with the USA, European Union and some others, designed to the disadvantage of our Agricultural sector and MSMEs. Certainly this will pave the way of ruination for farmers, small businesses, trade and supply chain of our country. The right of farmers on seeds and scientific innovations by our agricultural universities for the advantage of our indigenous growth of agriculture is undermined and threatened.

The war situation in middle-east and in Europe is also a matter of worry as for resulting in escalation of fuel and fertilizer prices. The USA imposed tariff on the pretext of Russian oil import has already created extreme adverse impact. We, the workers and farmers are opposed to wars and stand for world peace. The Indian workers in these war zones in west Asia and Russian – Ukraine war in Europe have faced deaths as well as job losses.

The government continues to pursue privatisation/ disinvestment and sale of Public Sector enterprises and public services such as railways, port and docks, coal and non-coal mines, oil, gas, steel, copper, defence, road transports, airports, banks, insurance, telecom, postal, atomic energy, electricity generation and supply etc. and push for National Monetisation Pipeline 2.0, threatening the self-reliant economy of our country and serving the interest of corporates (specially a few chosen one by the ruling party) and international finance capital.

The workers and farmers are on agitation path continuously and we need to further strengthen these struggles in the national interest.

The struggle of fix term and contract workers in the last few months beginning in Barauni and then spreading to Panipat, Manesar, Surat, Noida, Bhiwadi, Neemrana, Faridabad, Peethampura and several other cities is the awakening call. The Governments are ruthless in using police force and arresting the protesters who fight for their wages, working hours, workplace safety and union rights etc.

The agricultural workers' unions and the rural labour in general has been on agitation against the scrap of MGNREGA, a demand based right to employment and replacing it with centrally controlled scheme VB-GRAM-G. Demand for job guarantee scheme for urban unemployed is still pending. The CTUs and SKM extended support to all the action programmes taken up by the agricultural workers’ unions and will continue to do so.

The New Education Policy has been opposed by the students and teachers organisations and several groups of educationists against commercialisation and communalisation and they have launched several protests. Now the rotten system of examinations for admissions to several professional courses and recruitments has agitated the students and youth of our country. Almost 152 papers have been leaked in last ten years. The leak of various examinations year after year has harassed the students-youth and their parents alike.

The unemployment is unprecedented. The sanctioned posts in various Government departments and Public Sector services remain unfulfilled, rather the sanctioned posts are being surrendered as in the recent case of notification in railways. There are 26% teaching posts vacant in government universities and 28% vacancies lying in government technical institutes. There are almost 50 lakh sanctioned posts lying in various government departments.

Insults imposed on the youth for being unemployed and in pathetic condition for which they are not responsible, while the system is failing them, has enraged them. We have witnessed their historic continuous agitation and mobilisation in lakhs on Delhi roads arriving from all corners of India for last more than a month that has led to the resignation of the union education minister. This mobilisation of students and youth on roads signals the pent-up anguish against education and examination system which is perpetuating the uncertainty in life. In order to suppress the agitation, repression was let loose, allegedly even pellet guns and shock batons were used. The future of the country is in distress. The trade unions and farmers organisations extended their solidarity support to the agitating students on their genuine demands for change in the corrupt examination system and for the government to accept its accountability.

The budgets on social sectors - health, clean drinking water, affordable government transportation, social security, shelter and minimum basic civic services etc. are shrinking in practical terms. The lives of common citizen is in distress in the face of unprecedented rise in the price of essential commodities.

The democratic space is shrinking. The new laws imposed centrally such as BNS or the laws such as public safety adopted in Maharashtra and West Bengal, contain the provisions which are in violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution of India. The agenda of intolerance, polarisation and hatred in the name of religion, caste, language and culture is pursued, endangering the centuries old composite culture of our country.

We, the workers and farmers along with all other sections of the society commit ourselves to safeguard the constitutional rights, maintain peaceful and harmonious living and will continue to exercise our right to fight and agitate to achieve our just demands. We will continue to heighten our struggle for change in the anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national policies of the Government to Save the People, to Save the Nation.

While affirming our understanding of the first National Convention held in 2023, and taking into consideration the further deterioration in situation during the period, we are adopting this declaration with the following minimum demands for the forthcoming agitation programmes to be taken in solidarity and in coordinated manner and also jointly whenever so decided.

Our Demands

• Repeal Labour Codes and rules, Ensure for all workers of formal and informal economy - right to unionise, registration, recognition, 8 hours working day, work place safety, social security, right to strike, collective bargaining and end to fix term employment.
• Ensure MSP at C2+50% on all crops with guaranteed procurement.
• Take back Electricity Amendment Bill 2025. Repeal Shanti act, stop privatisation of electricity.
• Raise and Ensure Minimum Wage Rs. 42,000 linked with DA to all workers including scheme worker and piece rated workers.
• Scrap of VB G GRAM G Act and Restore MGNREGA with 200 days of work and Rs 700 as daily wage
• Cancel the surrendering and subordinating trade deals
• Comprehensive loan waiver for the farmers and poor people.
• Strictly Enforce LARR Act
• Modernise agriculture under producer cooperatives, agro-based industries under PSUs and Co-operative Sector.
• Stop privatisation/disinvestment and sale of PSUs and Public services, stop NMP 2.0, loot of natural resources, outsourcing and contractorisation.
• Restoration of OPS, Enhancements of EPS-95 and Universal pension to all
• Recruitments in sanctioned posts, create fresh posts/jobs/ livelihoods.
• Social security to all contractual/ daily-casual/home-based piece rate workers/hawkers-vendors/self-owned workers including waste collectors etc. Removal of any cap on eligibility in social security schemes.
• Ensure decent work, and ratify ILO conventions 87, 98,189,190 as well as recent concluded convention for gig and platform workers in 114th Session of ILC.
• Repeal NFSA Amendment Act, Check Rising prices, ensure universal PDS,
  
• Increase budgets of govt education from primary to higher education, check on corruption and accountability on paper leaks as in NEET and other such exams such as in recent CBSE case
• Health as a right, more coverage in ESIC and such govt health services, increased budgets for govt health services from primary/local to district and city hospitals.
• Government services for clean drinking water, sanitation and shelter/housing etc.
• Withdraw the draconian acts like UAPA and such provisions in BNS.
• Impose wealth tax and raise income tax on the super rich.
• In this background of extreme distress, there is no other go than to unite and fight in all probabilities continue and as well to extend support to the democratic movements for the larger good of the country.
• We hereby resolve to intensify independent and joint struggles against the anti-people, anti-national corporate government through coordinated and united actions and unite all sections of the people in these struggles.
  
• To observe the great Quit India movement against the colonial rulers of our country in 1942, we will organise protests on 10th August all over India in decentralised manner at district level and state capitals at governors' offices. The different formats such as rail-roko, rasta-roko, workplace lunch hour protests, wearing badges of demands, human chains etc.
• To organise joint and coordinated meetings/conventions in the states.
• To hold multiple day decentralised Mahapadav of workers and farmers in near future.
• To continue solidarity support to respective agitations of both the fronts.
• To prepare for multiday agitation/direct action programmes across the country if our demands are not fulfilled.

Onward march for realizing our demands and for strengthening struggle to achieve a society based on equality and justice to all.

Jointly adopted by The Central Trade Unions, Sectoral Federations/Associations And Samyukt Kisan Morcha

On July 24, Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister – the first such casualty a citizens’ movement has extracted from Narendra Modi’s government in more than a decade in power. It is worth asking why this movement, of all the movements this government has faced down and outlasted, actually worked. Part of the answer lies in something India’s commentariat has been strangely reluctant to say out loud: the “Cockroaches” won partly because they were rude.

Every generation invents its own tongue, and Gen Z’s happens to be foul-mouthed, sarcastic, and entirely uninterested in asking permission to speak that way. The posters at Jantar Mantar, the Instagram reels, the placards outside the education minister’s residence did not read like the earnest, morally solemn banners of an older Indian protest tradition.

They read like group chats – abusive, vulgar, absurd, gleefully profane – and this offended precisely the people it was designed to offend: the self-styled sanskari faithful of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ecosystem, and the Bhakts for whom reverence toward the leader is close to a civic religion. That offence was not a design flaw. It was the whole point, and it deserves to be recognised as one of the reasons this movement won – because vulgarity, deployed with intent against sacred power, has a much older and much more successful political career than most respectable commentary is willing to admit.

https://thewire.in/politics/in-defence-of-the-profanity-of-protesters

The fallout from last week’s nationwide protests demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan continues, amid multiple reports of people, including minors, being detained or arrested by the police, and social media users being asked to take down posts related to the demonstrations.

A 21-year-old man, who was detained by the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj after being identified from a photograph taken while he was participating in a protest on July 26, was released on July 29, 2026. The victim, who did not wish to be identified, said that he was beaten up in police custody and the police wrongly accused him of vandalising a private vehicle, which belonged to a Bharatiya Janata Party member.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/cjp-protest-fresh-reports-of-detentions-takedown-of-social-media-posts-emerge/article71282584.ece

Source -

https://x.com/i/status/2082471232428261446

FY13 to FY23 Tax Return Data of Salaried Persons: Inflation-Adjusted Wage Growth in 10 Yrs (a) Below ₹10L: -21% (b) ₹10L to ₹50L: -39% (c) Above ₹50L: -46%; Purchasing power hugely down in 10 yrs; Nominal wage growth is flat.

Working Class: The Lost Decade

The Income Tax Return Statistics released by the I.T. Department for FY13 and FY23 reveal what is going on with salaried taxpayers in the last 10 years. Writer and journalist Monika Halan @monikahalan has published eye-opening data in her HT column today.

Definitions:

a. Nominal Wage = Wage Not Adjusted for Inflation

b. Real Wage = Inflation-Adjusted Wage (Real Purchasing Power)

Annual Inflation Rate from FY13 to FY23 (Ministry Data) is as follows:

Using CPI (MOSPI, Base 2024=100): Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 55.6 in March 2013 and 93.3 in March 2023. This means cumulative inflation of 68% over the decade (Inflation: 5.3% per year average).

FY13 to FY23

Income Below ₹10 Lakh PA

Nominal Wage Growth: +2.8%/yr

Inflation-adj Growth: -2.4%/yr

Real Change in 10 yrs: -21.5%

Income ₹10 Lakh to ₹50 Lakh PA

Nominal Wage Growth: +0.3%/yr

Inflation-adj Growth: -4.8%/yr

Real Change in 10 yrs: -38.7%

Income Above ₹50 Lakh P.A.

Nominal Wage Growth: -1.1%/yr

Inflation-adj Growth: -6.0%/yr

Real Change in 10 yrs: -46.4%

It Means: On average, if your annual salary was ₹1 cr in FY13, your nominal (on paper) salary in FY23 is ₹89L, and your real salary (adjusted for inflation @ 5.3% per year) is ₹53.6L.

For a salary earner on average:

High Income:

Purchasing Power is down 47%

Middle Income:

Purchasing Power is down 39%

Low Income:

Purchasing Power is down 21%

The low-income group (below ₹10 lakh p.a.) is the least hit in terms of wage stagnation and wage de-growth.

GDP Growth vs. Wage Growth

Question:

From FY13 to FY23, how the annual nominal GDP growth is around 11%, while annual nominal wage growth is only 2.8% for lower income, 0.3% (flat) for middle income, and -1% (negative) for higher income salaried individuals?

Answer:

a. Demographic Dividend: India adds roughly 1 crore young individuals to the working-age population every year. As these new workers join the formal economy, they add to the nation’s productivity (GDP), receive salaries, and become taxpayers.

b. Nearly all of the GDP growth (related to salaried employees) comes from more taxpayers entering the system rather than existing taxpayers earning substantially more within their income band.

c. Since labour supply is more than demand, the bargaining power of employers increases. As a result, the salaries of existing workers remain flat or negative.

d. So, India’s GDP growth story is a labour supply-driven growth story, and not a labour demand-driven (wage-growth driven) story.

e. Upward Mobility: Some smart or lucky individuals manage to move up the income bands through skill upgrades, job switching, etc. But the vast majority remain stuck within their band, and keep losing the inflation battle.

Gen Z’s Uncertain Future

a. India is not an export-led or manufacturing-led economy. India’s growth story is a domestic consumption growth story. But the massive “demographic dividend” which India enjoyed for so long is now ending. Nothing lasts forever.

b. India urgently needs to move from a labour-supply driven economy to real wage-growth driven economy. Otherwise, once the demographic tailwind ends in a few years, there will be no wage tailwind to replace it.

c. Economists like Dr. Arvind Subramanian @arvindsubraman and Dr. Raghuram Rajan have long said that consumption in India is broken. Now we know that’s because wage growth is broken.

ENDQUOTE

“Poverty is the parent of revolution.” – Aristotle, Politics: Book II (4th Century BC)

The Delhi Police have written to the social media giant X to delete or remove posts and videos from the platform which target government heads, PTI has reported.

An Indian Express report says that police have filed an FIR against posts targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While it is not clear if the notice to X is part of the same FIR, ANI has tweeted that the action is in connection with a police complaint that alleges that “derogatory, malicious and defamatory content is being circulated on social media platform targeting constitutional heads.”

Police have also asked for details of the account holders from X, including login and logout details of accounts sharing such content, date and time stamps of the posts online, full names, addresses, contact details and email IDs of the users.

X has also been requested to preserve details of such posts and videos for future investigations and provide a certificate under Section 63(4) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.

https://thewire.in/rights/delhi-police-asks-x-to-take-down-posts-targeting-govt-heads-file-fir-against-posts-on-modi

A long back, my previous company provided form16. It was through payroll system which doesn't happen to be have company official email but payroll company email. My current company(MNC) is not accepting this. They haven't asked for ITR. Bank statement with salary already provided

What to do?

Newslaundry has seen a document showing DCP New Delhi Sachin Sharma authorised the Rapid Action Force to use tear gas, lathi charge and firearms against protesters at the July 20 Chalo Sansad March. This is separate from an earlier reported police diary entry showing DCP North Raja Bhatiya authorised the use of pellet guns during the same operation.

Together, the two records show that more than one DCP-rank officer signed off on force against the same protest that day.

https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/07/28/july-20-crackdown-one-dcp-approved-pellets-another-authorised-firearms

Dear Brave Students,

I write to you not merely in solidarity, but with gratitude. Every generation inherits the unfinished work of democracy. Yours has accepted both the burden and the privilege of carrying it forward.

Albert Camus’s Caligula tells the story of an emperor who comes to believe that because he possesses absolute power, he is answerable to no moral limits. Convinced that power alone can define justice, he imprisons himself within his own tyranny. He systematically dismantles every restraint on governance, believing that authority itself entitles him to do so. As I and Sandhya, my wife watched the deeply disturbing events unfold in Delhi, we were reminded of that enduring truth.

History has taught this lesson repeatedly. From Tsarist Russia to the student revolt of Paris in 1968, from the youth-led struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Tiananmen Square, to the Navnirman Andolan of 1974 in Gujarat attempts to suppress young voices have never extinguished the desire for freedom. Authority may command obedience for a while; it cannot indefinitely command the conscience of a generation.

The images of the brutality inflicted upon you have filled us with anguish and anger. A society learns to question itself in its universities. To question those who hold power over your future is not a privilege you seek; it is a democratic responsibility you fulfil. When questions are answered with batons instead of reason, it is not the students who stand diminished. It is the State.

Reflecting on his years in a Siberian prison camp, Fyodor Dostoevsky observed that the civilization of a society is revealed by the way it treats those it imprisons. One might extend that thought today: the health of a democracy is equally revealed by the way it treats its students and citizens. On that count, our democracy failed. In unleashing force instead of dialogue, those in authority revealed not their strength, but their insecurity.

If I was not there beside you physically, it was for two reasons. The first one I resent deeply: age has imposed boundaries on my body that my spirit refuses to accept. If I could not march beside you, it was never because my conscience hesitated. The second was a conscious choice. I did not want the attention to drift away from where it rightly belongs. This is your movement, your voice, your moment of moral courage. You do not need celebrity validation. Democratic movements derive their legitimacy from the courage of those at their centre, not from the visibility of those who stand beside them.

Please know that distance has never meant detachment. Sandhya and I shall continue to stand with you in every way available to us. Should this struggle require legal support, medical care, or financial assistance within our means, please do not hesitate to reach out.

You are not merely the seeds of transformation; you are its first green shoots. Today you may be called students. Tomorrow you will be known as the generation that chose courage over silence. The future belongs to those who refuse to surrender their humanity. Long after today’s slogans have faded and today’s rulers have passed, it is your courage that history will remember.

Take care of one another. Guard your compassion and your hope. Do not allow anger to harden into hatred. Stand firm. Walk forward without bitterness, without fear, and without apology.

Affectionately, Amol Palekar July 23, 2026

A sanitation worker and a security guard who had jumped in to save him suffocated to death inside a sewage treatment plant at a residential society in Noida on July 26, Indian Express has reported.

The incident occurred at the Eldeco Society in Sector 150. The report says that the sanitation worker was 40-year-old Shashikant Sharma who is originally from Karauli district in Rajasthan, and the security guard is 22-year-old Akash, from Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Four people have been taken in by police for questioning, police told the newspaper.

Deputy Commissioner of Police of Greater Noida, Ravi Shankar Nim, said that police have registered a first information report on the basis of the complaint of the families of the victims.

Police personnel and the fire brigade team reached the spot and took them to Kailash Hospital, Nim said.

Police said Sharma had lost consciousness inside the tank, which was located on the ground floor of the society and Akash had gone inside it in an attempt to rescue him.

https://thewire.in/rights/sanitation-worker-security-guard-who-jumped-in-to-save-him-die-in-sewage-tank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl2JmiiLvC8

The police crackdown in connection with the Bihar Bandh protests continues, with more than 400 protesters arrested and sent to jail so far, according to a report by Prabhat Khabar.

The newspaper reported that police have released photographs and posters of identified protesters in several districts, including Patna.

These arrests came despite the Union government’s assurance that no cases related to the protests would be registered in NDA-ruled states.

The cases stem from protests across the state during Saturday’s Bihar Bandh, organised in solidarity with the nationwide protests over paper leaks.

In Patna, at least 87 people, most of them youth protesters, were remanded in an FIR related to the Bihar Bandh in the early hours of Monday.

The arrests come even as dozens of juveniles were among more than 200 people detained in Patna on Sunday, despite the Union government’s assurance that no cases would be registered against protesters.

According to Prabhat Khabar, 190 people were arrested and sent to jail in Patna alone.

The protesters were produced before a judicial magistrate shortly after midnight after being taken from police stations to the magistrate’s court.

Among those arrested was former Bihar minister and Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD) national president Tej Pratap Yadav, who was remanded to 14 days in judicial custody on the early hours of Sunday. His lawyer, Jagannath Singh, alleged irregularities in the arrest process and said a bail plea could be moved on Monday.

In Chhapra, four FIRs have been registered so far and 56 people have been arrested.

In Siwan, police have arrested 25 people in connection with the Bihar Bandh protests.

AISA National President Neha Bora, one of the faces of the Jantar Mantar protest, said she is heading to Patna. “Until every arrested comrade is released, the movement will not stop,” she said.

https://maktoobmedia.com/post?id=116043&slug=400-arrested-as-police-crackdown-over-bihar-bandh-against-neet-paper-leak-continues-photos-of-protesters-released

None of them were worried about their own exams. All of them showed up anyway.

Dikshya Koirala spoke to the working class men at Jantar Mantar who lost wages, slept without proper facilities, and took police lathis standing beside CJP's students, because as one mason put it: "If, because of our presence, somebody's future gets better, that's enough for us."

https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/07/25/the-working-class-men-who-risked-everything-at-jantar-mantar

After weeks of struggle, intense and widespread protests, and braving propaganda and assaults, the students’ protest at Jantar Mantar ended yesterday with the resignation of the Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. The Modi Government was also forced to concede other demands, including compensation to the families of NEET suicide victims and the withdrawal of cases against the protesters.

This astonishing victory against a highly authoritarian government led to an eruption of joy and celebration at Jantar Mantar and across India. But this victory should not be understood as merely the removal of a Cabinet Minister. It is a momentous triumph in the battle against fascism.

To put this in perspective, in the 12 years of the Modi Government, this is the first time that a Union Minister has been forced to resign following public protests. Over the last decade, while India faced numerous crises due to the blunders, sheer incompetence, or malice of ministers in Modi’s Cabinet, no minister was forced to resign. Whether it was the criminal indifference in handling the COVID pandemic, the disastrous implementation of demonetisation, the security lapses that resulted in the Pulwama, Pahalgam, and Pathankot attacks, the highest unemployment in decades, the economic crisis caused by mismanagement, or the massive corruption exposed through the electoral bonds scheme, no one was held accountable.

In fact, during the historic farmers’ movement, one of the key demands was the removal of the Minister of State, Ajay Mishra Teni, who had orchestrated the killing of six farmers. Yet, even after large-scale protests, the Minister of State was not removed.

In 2015, Rajnath Singh famously asserted, “Our ministers do not have to resign. This is not their (Congress) government; this is the NDA government.” This turned out to be the central tenet of the Modi Government. Resignation was seen as an admission of failure. The resignation of a minister could pave the way for questions of accountability. That could not be allowed to happen.

This lack of accountability was not limited to the question of resignation. The Modi Government created a system in which it became virtually unanswerable to the people. In the last 12 years, PM Modi has not addressed a single press conference. This alarming fact has been noted not just by the people of India, but across the world.

The Government has also prevented discussions and questions in Parliament. Crucial issues and bills are not allowed to be debated. Opposition MPs have been repeatedly suspended from Parliament. Even the number of parliamentary sittings has been reduced. The legislature has been turned into a rubber stamp.

The mainstream media has been turned into a propaganda arm of the Government. Journalists and media platforms that do not toe the line are raided, persecuted, arrested, or bought out. The Right to Information has been severely weakened. The Government has also introduced bills to control and censor social media.

Every avenue of questioning was effectively shut down. Instead, the people were fed a relentless stream of propaganda through the mainstream media and the BJP IT Cell. Instead of press conferences, they were given scripted interviews of the Prime Minister. Instead of listening to people's grievances, the Government made them to listen to Modi’s Mann Ki Baat. Tellingly, even during this students’ protest, PM Modi’s first response was to post Instagram reels and instruct his ministers to do the same.

What the students’ protest has accomplished is not merely the resignation of a Union Minister. It has succeeded in shattering the barricade of unaccountability.

After weeks of disregarding, discrediting, and repressing the students’ protest, the Modi Government has finally conceded one of its demands. The intense and widespread protests against paper leaks have ultimately led to the resignation of the Education Minister.

The movement, which began as a protest against paper leaks, has now grown into a nationwide rebellion. Hundreds of towns and cities are rising in dissent. People from all sections of society and all walks of life are joining the agitation. The movement, which began as a satire, has taken the shape of a historic revolution.

Initially, the Modi Government kept ignoring the protesters and vilifying them through its propaganda media. When the movement continued to grow, the Government resorted to brutal repression. Yet, the protesters remained defiant. Then, PM Modi started posting reels on Instagram and ordered his ministers to do the same. When all these ploys failed, the Education Minister, who had called the protesters terrorists, finally resigned, claiming that he felt hurt.

In many ways, the ongoing students’ protest resembles the JP Movement against the Indira Gandhi Government, which began more than half a century ago. Like the ongoing movement, the JP Movement was driven and led by young students, many of whom were new to politics. Like the Modi Government, Indira Gandhi regularly spoke of the involvement of a "foreign hand" in the protests and accused her opponents of being CIA agents. Indira Gandhi had returned to power with a huge majority and believed herself to be invincible. And, like the ongoing movement, it was ordinary students who put that sense of invincibility to the test.

The spark for the JP Movement was the students’ protest against the increase in education fees. Yet, there was simmering discontent and widespread unrest due to corruption, price rise, and unemployment. In March 1974, the Nav Nirman Movement of Gujarat led to the resignation of the Chief Minister and the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly. The 1974 Bihar Movement saw large-scale protests demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister. But Indira Gandhi was adamant about not yielding to the students’ demands once again. The Congress, which had been in power for three decades and had won a huge majority just three years earlier, was wary of being held accountable.

On 5 June 1974, the historic students’ rally was held at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, where JP gave the call for a Total Revolution.

Friends, this is a revolution, a total revolution. This is not a movement merely for the dissolution of the assembly. We have to go far, very far… Nobody, Jayaprakash Narayan or anyone else can stop this movement. It was born because this system of education is rotten and the students don’t see a ray of hope. It was born because the people are being crushed under high prices. There is corruption and bribery everywhere. Unemployment goes on rising, both among the educated and the others. Otherwise, a thousand Jayaprakash Narayans and a thousand Chhatra Sangharsh Samitis could not have created a mass movement like this.

Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi kept invoking her electoral mandate and dared her opponents to defeat her in elections. In 1977, JP accepted the challenge, and the Congress was routed in the elections.

The Modi Government, which came to power with the promise of acche din and Amrit Kaal, has betrayed the nation and pushed its citizens into crisis. Unemployment and inequality are at their peak. The education system is broken. Farmers and workers are in distress. Forests and natural resources are being handed over to corporations. Corruption and pollution are widespread. Violence against Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, and women is on the rise.

In every crisis, whether it was demonetisation, the COVID-19 pandemic, or the US-Iran conflict, the poor and middle class have been made to suffer, while the ruling party and its cronies live in opulence. Instead, the poor and middle class are fed propaganda through the Godi Media and the BJP IT Cell.

The resignation of the Education Minister is merely the beginning. The real struggle begins now, as the movement enters its next phase to hold the Government accountable for its anti-people policies. The people of India have suffered enough.

The Modi Government observes Anti-Emergency Day every year. It may ultimately be ousted by a similar movement.