The students’ agitation against NEET examination paper leaks initiated by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) reached its tipping point on Monday, the 20th July 2026. One of their leaders, who was on a hunger strike, was forcibly taken away by the Delhi Police on the 18th July. This abduction triggered great outrage, and a large number of students gathered on Monday, ready to march to Parliament House to press their demand for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The Delhi Police did not allow the students to proceed and began cracking down on the protesting students most viciously and brutally. Students were allegedly hit with lathis (some with nails inserted in them to cause grievous injury), fired upon with tear gas shells at close range and even shot with pellet guns. Many students complained that the police hurled the vilest abuses at them, shoved lathis at the private parts of girls, and beat them up mercilessly under the full glare of the public and media. This barbaric and remorseless violence stunned the nation as millions of Indians saw for the first time the ugly and demonic face of state repression.
Many were immediately reminded of the iconic scenes of the 1982 Oscar-winning Richard Attenborough film ‘Gandhi’ where an American reporter sends a wired message to his newspaper on how the British police rained lathis on unarmed and non-violent Satyagrahis trying to break the British Salt Law. The dramatic and emotionally charged scenes in the film evoke goosebumps but also remind us of the stark reality that state oppression only changed faces for India; the form and brutality remained the same.
The words of the American reporter, “They walked both Hindu and Muslim alike, with heads held high, without any hope of escape from injury or death. It went on and on into the night. Stop! Women carried the wounded and broken bodies from the road until they dropped from exhaustion. Stop! But it went on and on. Stop! Whatever moral ascendancy the West held was lost here today. India is free, for she has taken all that steel and cruelty and she has neither cringed nor retreated. Stop!”
Gen Z Teaches the Nation to Unlearn Fear
At the time of writing, the main demand of the protesting students was finally met. Dharmendra Pradhan tendered his resignation on the 25th July. Although one must note that he did not resign owning moral responsibility for the NEET exam leaks, rather he resigned to ‘prevent anti-national forces from exploiting the situation at Jantar Mantar’.
There was celebration all over the nation. However, it was correctly pointed out by a press statement by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind: “The resignation of one individual alone cannot resolve the deep structural problems confronting the education sector. The crisis in our education system requires a comprehensive overhaul rather than symbolic action.”
But, how did Gen Z accomplish the seemingly impossible. Make a minister resign from the current regime that was ruthless, arrogant and appeared almost invincible. The right to question and seek accountability had almost vanished from the dictionary of the common man. This capitulation by the entire nation was based on the foundation of only one word ‘fear’. Fear of arrest, fear of being beaten, fear of being hounded by the investigative agencies, fear of losing one’s livelihood, fear of being branded anti-national, fear of prolonged legal harassment, and above all, fear of becoming part of a diminishing anti-establishment minority.
Gen Z cracked the code of this ‘fear syndrome’. They flipped it on its head. Confronting the oppressors head-on, they invited punishment. The two most vivid and memorable scenes of the protest that symbolise the ‘unlearning fear’ process was footage showing a lone demonstrator surrounded by several security personnel while repeatedly shouting, “Maaro, sir” (Hit me, sir), as he was struck with lathis; while the second was a 27-year-old RhiyaAhir standing in front of a police van carrying detained student protesters during a demonstration in Mumbai.
There are hundreds of such scenes of bravery and daring caught on camera and saved on social media platforms. They will remain permanently etched in the minds of people for generations. The government thought that they had taught the young protestors a lesson, they would not forget easily. However, the crackdown had the opposite effect on Gen Z. They returned for more. And even those started turning up who were not directly impacted by the exam paper leaks. Parents, young professionals, farmers and even school children, all turned up in solidarity. Many said they would not be able to forgive themselves if they did not join the protest. Some started crying profusely while talking to the media. The protests became a collective moral catharsis for the nation. People flocked to Jantar Mantar as if going there was a pilgrimage. The new situation was captured succinctly by an Opedpiece in Al Jazeera titled, “In India, fear has switched sides.”
National Unity
One of the side-effects of the students protest at Jantar Mantar was the show of national unity. People of all religions, regions, languages, economic classes, castes and social standing joining hands and helping each other in the protest. You could see Muslims and Sikhs (the most vilified religious minorities of India) taking part in the protests very actively and prominently. As reported by Radiance, Muhammad Junaid became the face of backend support for the protestors.
Junaid ensured that food and refreshment were supplied to the protesting youngsters. Starting with hot tea to comfort sore throats, and pakodas and poori-sabzi early mornings, and finally, ending with snacks and drinks, Mohammad Junaid ensured that the protesting ground became an area of care. In the video, Dipke (a prominent leader of the Cockroach Janta Party that spearheaded the protests) can be seen giving a speech before the audience, being highly emotional about the realisation that it was possible for them to sit here for three consecutive days only because of Junaid’s commitment. “If it wasn’t for Mohammad Bhai backing us, was it possible for us to be sitting here for these last three days?” Dipke asks the cheering crowd. “No matter what they do to separate us… As long as he stands by me, no one can stop this movement.”
If we think positively, the Jantar Mantar protests could well become a turning point in India’s history. If people demand accountability, if the political opposition becomes the voice of its citizens, if the youth of the country intervene in the important issues confronting the nation; there is bound to be change in governance and things will definitely improve. Of course, many colossal problems confronting our nation remain unresolved. However, now at least we have hope by our side.