A confident democracy does not fear Sonam Wangchuk

At Jantar Mantar (JM), one also met members of the Cockroach Janta Party, who are also seeking redress from the government over the national exam fiasco.

Protest is integral to a democracy. It is how citizens remind the state that power is accountable. JM has, for decades, been that symbol, a place where farmers, students, workers, veterans and ordinary citizens who feel unheard can gather and be seen. It is the physical proof that in India, dissent is not a crime.

But the stalemate is troubling. For reasons best known to the government, there has been no meaningful engagement with Sonam Wangchuk or with the CJP. No one from the administration has sat across the table to hear them out. Silence and avoidance are not answers. When citizens go to the extreme of fasting to the point of physical collapse, it reflects a breakdown in dialogue, not a dilution of patriotism. A democracy that cannot talk to its own people is a democracy that is insecure.

Wangchuk’s condition is now a matter of public concern. A country that prides itself on ahimsa and satyagraha cannot afford to watch a Gandhian satyagrahi waste away without even a conversation. The moral cost of that silence is too high.

The CJP has announced a march on Monday (July 20) from JM to Parliament. This is their constitutional right. My earnest plea to the government is: Do not prevent them. Do not put up barricades. Allow the march to proceed peacefully to the gates of Parliament.

Parliament is precisely where these issues ought to be discussed. Let legislators debate the concerns raised on the street. When the government turns its back on the street, the street has no choice but to come to Parliament.

At the protest I also met a lot of young Indian citizens, mostly students and some who had completed their education but were unemployed and desperately seeking a job. The sentiment was one of despondency. Many of them were afraid and told me in lowered voices that they had come to JM without the permission of their faculty, because they would not have been allowed to be at the protest.

Some of them said, in a muted way, that the state now has so much surveillance power that if they are identified, any future prospects for education or employment could be denied to them.

Young citizens who should be the more vocal, most idealistic voices in a democracy, are looking over their shoulders. They are afraid to be seen protesting. They are afraid to raise their voice. The citizen is afraid that exercising a fundamental right will be held against them later.

This is a sad reflection of the Indian democratic index.

India’s future lies with its younger generation. If their education is compromised, if their ability to question is curbed, and if they do not have any faith in the system, then India is striking at the vitality of our own future.

The competence, confidence and commitment of our younger generation is the foundation of national security. Their aspirations must be nurtured.

I left Jantar Mantar with a sense of sadness, that protest has become the only language left between the state and its people.

When a Sonam Wangchuk has to fast, when students have to sneak out to attend a protest, when aggrieved parties have to march to be heard, it sullies Indian democracy.

The government has an opportunity now.

Talk to Sonam Wangchuk and the CJP and end the stalemate before it ends in tragedy. Enable the Monday march.

The writer is director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi