What was so special

Today, 7 November 2026, Abhijith Deepke made his first visit to Keralam ever since he ignited the Cockroach Janata Party. His visit was part of the ongoing protest against the Election Commission of India and a Special Intensive Revision. This visit is significant considering the larger Left nature and political legacy of the state. The visit gives me the leverage to write about something I wanted to scribble but missed due to my indolence.

As mentioned above, the protest demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and rescinding SIR is live. But both the demands are yet to be achieved. This draws a stark difference from the first protest held on the backdrop of the NEET paper leak. Certain elements that succoured the initial protest in Jantar Mantar are absent here. I here try to analyse those crucial elements which played a role.

NEET is an exam written by around 20–22 lakh students every year aspiring for a medical seat from the total available 1.5 lakh. This fierce competition leads to mental pressure among coming-of-age children and has hitherto claimed lives of more than 90 children. Tamil Nadu is in the frontline in the fight against NEET. The state has already voiced against the exam highlighting the disparities it creates between different boards, the rural-urban divide, exacerbating the situation of the economically poor, and eventually passed a bill in the Legislative Assembly for scrapping the exam. Thus NEET was never out of controversy since its inception.

So when Jantar Mantar 1.0 began, there was an already existing pool of supporters. In addition to this were the parents, acquaintances, and well-wishers of students. As regarded as one of the noblest professions, any Indian parent would be on cloud nine if his or her child gets a medical seat. The respect, reputation, and recognition the profession brings make parents from various socio-economic backgrounds equally passionate about the exam. Aristotle, in his critique against his master Plato, says that the care of a parent for his children is more than for themselves. The same applies here. But the crucial factor was that the lion's share of Gen Z parents are the core vote base of the Bharatiya Janata Party and NDA alliance. Now when their children's lives were put on the spot, they were ready to rise against political inclinations. What unsettled the ruling party was not the mere participation of parents, but the proportion of people from upper caste and class. As a politically strategic party, the BJP has already learned necessary lessons from their lacklustre performance in 2024 and was not ready to lose their trustworthy vote base.

The formation of CJP and the NEET protest are serendipitous to each other. With CJP in the driver's seat, the movement got the very crucial non-partisan nature. Even though the opposition parties, including LoP Rahul Gandhi, vehemently criticised the government for recurring leaks earlier, it was translated as mere political rhetoric. The absence of Congress or Rahul Gandhi in the forefront sabotaged the usual Right-Wing plan. Else they would have tuned to Pappu, Bakodi, or minority politics and built a new narrative through their strong WhatsApp Universities. Now when a young, non-partisan group of people are coming to the streets in solidarity towards their fellows, the youth of the country couldn't find any genuine excuses to evade. Thanks to Instagram, the movement was literally celebrated across social media platforms. Through reels, short videos, stories, live updates, and posts, youngsters flooded social media platforms to an extent that the Prime Minister himself was coerced to change his usual presentation style and platform. I can write a separate blog on the protest itself, which I am planning for some other day. However, it would be myopic to pooh-pooh the adaptation BJP made in haste, including the unsuccessful PM video. They are well aware of the fact that the country today enjoys a demographic dividend; these prestige students are tomorrow's potential voters. So any carelessness in handling them can backfire.

The Left parties, especially their student outfits, did a commendable job without looking for credits. It was a win-win situation for both groups. Similar to the fate of Congress, Left parties too could be easily stamped as Chinese agents or Naxals, so the CJP vehicle shielded them from the usual WhatsApp bombs. On the flip side, constant support was there for mobilising students, disseminating information, and sharing resources. Thus, student outfits filled the lacunae a spontaneous movement like CJP could face. A single tweet from Abhijith Deepke expressing gratitude to student wings is enough to verify that.

The CJP was clever and made a calibrated approach, realising the grandeur and capacity of the regime they are fighting against. They made their demands clear from the very beginning and stuck to them until annulment. The most prudent among them was to ask for the Education Minister's resignation and avoid Modi's name as much as possible from the limelight. This derailed the usual Right-Wing plans. What usually happens is the dissenting party points their arrow towards Modi. This enables the RW machinery, who are already equipped with necessary skills, to protect Modi and redirect the narrative. When the Education Minister's resignation was demanded, this created a feeling even in the minds of karyakartas that sacrificing a pawn is better to preserve the king—sorry, present king. However, this decision too was not easy, as Pradhan, a fervent Odisha cadre, enjoyed strong RSS support. The RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat's remark to provide friendly ears to the youth of the country has to be read between the lines.

The greatest achievement of Jantar Mantar 1.0 is that it was able to set a precedent. The only prior incident of a minister resigning from the Modi cabinet was in 2018 when M. J. Akbar resigned owing to #MeToo allegations. So the resignation shared a zeal to the opposition—one which is similar to the Japanese victory over the Russians in 1905, that the BJP is not invincible. However, a comprehensive study requires comparative analysis with Jantar Mantar 2.0, and only such a study can provide more insights. Since Jantar Mantar is now floating across the nation, I shall too float and wait till it reaches ashore to write.