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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Modi govt can’t see the difference between confidence and arrogance. What it means to people

It’s not just about the NEET paper leaks anymore. It’s not even about Dharmendra Pradhan. The huge gathering is a cumulative effect of small grievances that have been building up.

In the 2016 film Sultan, Anushka Sharma’s character gives her wrestler-husband Sultan—played by Salman Khan—a stinging rebuke for ‘earning’ arrogance while she wanted him to earn respect: “Maine tujhe izzat kamaane ko kaha tha. Tu toh guroor kamaa ke aa gaya Sultan.” Many Indians may relate to her better now.

On Monday, the might of the State was on display as the police lathicharged and used tear gas to prevent thousands of young demonstrators from reaching the Parliament to protest against irregularities in medical entrance examinations and demand the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Activist Sonam Wangchuk, who was on fast for three weeks before being forcibly taken to Safdarjung Hospital, couldn’t join them as he said he was under ‘illegal detention’.

Even as thousands of students were struggling to cross police barricades to reach the Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his customary address before the start of the session. He made no mention of what was happening to India’s youth barely a few hundred metres from where he stood. As if they didn’t matter! Lauding the successful launch of a rocket by a Hyderabad-based company, he took a not-so-veiled swipe at Rahul Gandhi, saying that the feat was achieved by those with an average age of 28 years, “not some 56-year-old young man”. It was out of context. The joke was supposed to be on the 56-year-old Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. But its timing—with the State’s brute power on display against students and youth in the national capital—seemed to be a reminder of the 56-inch chest, a metaphor for a strong and decisive government.

Manmohan Singh’s ‘mistake’?

Let me first play the devil’s advocate. Aspiring doctors, students, and youth in general need to understand that PM Modi doesn’t speak on anything that is negative about his government. He doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes made by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then-UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who easily buckled under the Opposition’s pressure and........

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