Gandhi’s 1929 Espousal of Duty of Resistance for Freedom Resonates with the Delhi Protest Against Modi Govt
On the eve of the golden jubilee of the Republic of India and on January 25, 2000 the then president of India in his address to the nation had cautioned that people subjected to long spell of suffering and agony on account of failure of governance would rise in revolt.
He very sharply remarked, “Our three-way fast-lane of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation must provide safe pedestrian crossings for the unempowered India also so that it too can move towards ‘Equality of Status and Opportunity’.”
Further, he added, “‘Beware of the fury of the patient man,’ says the old adage. One could say, ‘Beware of the fury of the patient and long-suffering people.’”
Jana Gana in the forefront
Twenty six years later on July 20, 2026, Delhi witnessed “the fury of the patient and long-suffering people” and of the unempowered when spontaneously about a lakh people gathered in Delhi in response to a call issued by Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) to march to the parliament demanding resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the issue of recurrent leak of exam questions papers and lethal breakdown of education for youth.
Such huge mobilisation of people, driven by their own compelling convictions, following Sonam Wangchuk’s forcible removal from Jantar Mantar, where he was on an indefinite fast demanding, among other things, Pradhan’s resignation and reforms in education, stunned the nation and shook the very foundations of the Modi regime.
Also read: New Delhi’s Day of Violence Was Also One of Courage and Hope
People poured in Jantar Mantar and around parliament extemporaneously at their own cost to protest for safeguarding the integrity of examination system and education in complete disregard of Modi regime’s track record of ridiculing protestors as Andolonojeevis (those earning livelihood through protests) and suppressing any agitation and dissent by employing draconian laws and extremely coercive methods.
The unprecedented mass movement enlisting people and youth........
