Can't have sabka vishwas with tear gas and lathi

📌 Summary:

• Context: On Monday, thousands of mostly young, mostly peaceful protestors in the heart of Delhi faced barricades, lathi charge and tear gas shells — images the editorial says indict the government

• Trigger: Protestors responded to a call by the satirical online platform Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to march to Parliament; CJP has held a sit-in at Jantar Mantar since June 20, from where education and environment activist Sonam Wangchuk — fasting since June 28 — was forcibly hospitalised on Saturday

• Core argument: The protest is about far more than one fast or one platform — it is about a broken education system beset with exam leaks, delays and irregularities, which in turn swells the ranks of the unemployed

• Causal chain: Exam leaks and cancellations (the recent NEET cancellation and retest) → loss of academic years and credibility → blocked entry to professional courses and jobs → rising unemployment → generalised anxiety about the future in a young country → street mobilisation when institutional redress fails

• Indictment of the state's response: The Centre appeared harsh and unyielding towards young protestors and insensitive to a widely resonant issue; it took three weeks to break its silence, with a meeting on Monday between Minister J P Nadda and CJP spokespersons — and it is unclear whether that translates into reform or accountability

• Constitutional argument: Citizens have the right to place demands on government, to disagree and to protest peacefully; the Constitution guarantees both the freedom to speak and the space to be heard

• Pattern identified: Over roughly the last 12 years the government's instinct has been to distrust and demonise dissent, reflexively labelling it "anti-national", favouring top-down, one-way communication that does not involve listening

• Solution proposed: The concerns raised at Jantar Mantar must find their way into Parliament — the highest forum of deliberative democracy — as the legitimate trajectory; the government must build on the dialogue it has begun, and must stop kicking the twin cans of shiksha and berozgari down the road

• Democratic principle asserted: A government with serial electoral successes cannot stand in the way of citizens demanding a hearing between elections

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 — Fundamental Rights (Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b)), the right to peaceful protest and its reasonable restrictions, government accountability, and Parliament as the forum for the redressal of public grievances. Also GS2 Governance (education reform, examination integrity) and GS3 (employment).

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Article 19(1)(a) guarantees freedom of speech and expression; Article 19(1)(b) guarantees the right to assemble peaceably and without arms — both subject to reasonable restrictions under Articles 19(2) and 19(3)
• Jantar Mantar in Delhi is a designated protest site
• NEET is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA)

🔑 Key Term: Deliberative democracy — a model of democracy in which legitimacy flows not merely from winning elections but from reasoned public discussion among citizens and their representatives, with Parliament as its highest institutional forum.