The almost revolutionaries

Almost two decades ago, I stood with some friends at Delhinbsp;University, discussing plans for the day: which classes to bunk andnbsp;which, if any, to attend. Suddenly, a motley group of slogan-shoutingnbsp;students emerged from the dhaba. They exhortednbsp;us to join the protest against the recommendations of the Mandal Commission,nbsp;which had been implemented a day earlier.nbsp;Although none of us was clear about the issue or its repercussions,nbsp;the prospect of bunking classes was reason enough. Thus we toonbsp;joined the sloganeering. By the time the self-styled leaders had commandeerednbsp;a few DTC buses, nearly 200 postgraduate andnbsp;doctoral students had gathered at an intersection, which later becamenbsp;the epicentre of protests and was rechristened euphemistically asnbsp;Kranti Chowk.nbsp;

Students from variousnbsp;medical colleges of Delhi were already there, even as buses from the North Campus reached India Gate. The leaders goadednbsp;the 8220;revolutionaries8221; to move towards Parliament, where the monsoonnbsp;session was in progress. But we encountered police barricades much beforenbsp;that. Some hotheads tried to gatecrash, provoking the policemen into action 8212;nbsp;they charged ferociously, dispersing the crowd within minutes. Wenbsp;were at the rear, and managed to escape the dragnet by jumping intonbsp;the shallow canals around. A few students were bundlednbsp;into waiting police vans and taken to the Parliament Street policenbsp;station, where they were detained for some time before being let off.nbsp;

That night, Doordarshan telecast news of protests. My sister-in-law looked at me suspiciously, knowing my proclivity to landnbsp;in trouble. But the matter didn8217;t go beyond the glance that day.nbsp;As old-timers will recall, this was only a curtain-raiser: an unprecedented frenzy of student anger was to engulf Delhi for severalnbsp;months. Other participants like me must be nudging the 40-yearnbsp;mark now, and the grind for our daily bread and butter would have longnbsp;extinguished any revolutionary embers. But every year, about thisnbsp;time, my mind revisits those tumultuous days.nbsp;