Resilience and Fortitude won the movement

    Happy ‘protesters’ are excitedly describing the Saturday victory in the students’ protests as “Diwali”, “2nd Independence Day”, “a new era”, and so on.

    One can understand their excitement. 

    But their victory has been over a formidable opposition – namely, a government and all its might. In other words – a victory over masters of the ‘art’ commonly known as politics. Politicians can never digest that they were on the side that had to submit. 

    So after the ecstatic celebrations of having ‘won’ have settled down, the said victors – and surely their leaders must know this – will need to tread here on with their proverbial third eyes tuned to promptly spotting any reprisals. It could be in any form, and this is where the victors will have to apply astuteness to be careful of. And from now on they will also need to switch their threat-sensing antennae to ‘Z-plus category’. 

    The first signs of opposition retribution might present as vacillation and confusion in fulfillment of the pending terms of the agreement.  The avenue of frustrating the victors on the premise that they definitely cannot summon similar large-scale protests every now and then will likely be put to the test. And it’s a very difficult test to surmount.

    As for those excited protesters seen expressing that from now on Gen-Zee will use the same way to get the authorities to submit to more future demands, they should calm their minds and forget any such possibility. Many lessons have emerged from this 39-day ‘battle’, not the least for the side that had to accede. They must already be dissecting the situation to never again have to submit, as in this instance. That this same formula can be used for similar results in more situations, is out of the question. At least, for this smarting dispensation.

    The protest had a genuine reason to materialise. Apart from the fact that “152 paper leaks” have taken place in the last decade, and that efforts to find a solution to the malaise wasn’t visible, it became intolerably frustrating to the lakhs of students who have little option but to rely on these exams for reasonable employment. 

    Then, 22 students ended their lives in this case alone, for not being able to overcome any of the odds just to get a job. Gen-Zee are very sensitive, tending to think in telegram-style phrases that often do not include the entirety of the matter. This could be one of the reasons that 22 sensitive innocents took the extreme step. The future seemed hopeless and they were burned out from trying to hope to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.  If only the situation here was that the authorities will definitely take care of things and this isn’t so bad after all, some of the extreme step decisions might not have happened. That kind of reassurance is lacking in the present times. Aspiring youngsters feel no more than being just a roll number, just another count in a humongous multitude who cannot possibly all be provided employment.

    One hopes that among the lessons the protests threw up, a way to urgently devise methods of handling the basic needs of the large numbers of bonafide citizens would be paramount. Not long ago our Gen-Zee were proudly flaunted as “this nation’s great demographic dividend”. 

    We must cherish and nurture  our “demographic dividend” here first, before it can be expected to be viewed as an asset to the world.

    What, after all, won the students their victory. The answer is Resilience, and Fortitude. It is only after the students showed that the protests were not just a momentary flare of youthful passion that it had to be accorded due seriousness. 

    This was not a little campfire, as the opposition might have hoped for. It wasn’t showing any signs of dying with the night. Somehow the students had managed to prepare for and embark on a long struggle. Prolonging the daily strife and tension by not acting soon only screamed of danger of further damage to life, limb, and property. And the nation’s reputation and image the world over. 

    Whatever reasons some excited students may attribute their victory to, the duo (or trio) that headed the protests, must be well aware that what won the day was resilience, fortitude and grit.

                                                                            *****

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