The Left Is Dead At The Ballot Box. But, It Is Back In The Queue At Jantar Mantar

There is anger among those present at the Jantar Mantar protest. The Left did not create all of that. But the Left knows what to do when such anger gathers.

The anger on the ground is real. On a sultry evening, school and college students stand patiently in long queues, waiting to enter the venue. Police check their bags and belongings at checkpoints. Hundreds wait for hours. There are posters of Che Guevara, Leftist slogans, student organisations, and a visible political ecosystem.

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However, the anger might not always need to be manufactured. It is the anger of a generation facing NEET-related grievances, shrinking employment opportunities, fewer vacancies, anxiety over artificial intelligence and layoffs, and a growing sense that the future is becoming more competitive precisely as it becomes less certain. The Left did not create all of that. But the Left knows what to do when such anger gathers.

Organic Anger, Organised Entry

The CJP is not a Left movement simply because Left organisations are visible around it. That would be an intellectually lazy conclusion. The anger clearly predates the political parties. The students standing in queues at Jantar Mantar are not all cadres. Many are simply young people frustrated by the absence of jobs, opportunities and certainty. The public sympathy around the protest is real. But the presence of genuine anger does not make a movement immune to political appropriation.

That is where the comparison with the RG Kar protest in Kolkata becomes useful. The protest march and the agitation were born out of a specific horror – the rape and murder of a young doctor while she was on duty inside the hospital. The very emotive outrage that followed became a mass movement around women’s safety, justice and institutional accountability. But the CJP protest has emerged from accumulated frustration over examinations, recruitment, jobs and the future. People who support or do not support the new platform, born out of a carefully created social media campaign, eerily relate to the frustration and anger.

RG Kar was an explosion of grief and rage. CJP at Jantar Mantar is a slow-burning generational anxiety. It spread across cities which include Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Trivandram and finally reached Kolkata as well. The students and young population, backed by the Left, would be starting a dharna in the city too on Friday.

Neither movement can be reduced to the opposition’s presence. But both demonstrate the same political reality: once organic anger becomes large enough, political parties will attempt to enter it. Congress, AAP and the Samajwadi Party have extended political support to CJP. Left student organisations have entered........

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