The Revolution has begun… On the afternoon of 25 July, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan finally submitted his resignation. It was a key demand of the Cockroach Janata Party and of thousands of other agitating students and youth all over the country. There were massive celebrations everywhere! The protests at Jantar Mantar were called off! In 2019, an article in The Caravan named him the “money man” for the BJP! When he was Petroleum Minister, the state-owned ONGC gave Rs 668 crore to RSS-linked organisations as part of its CSR. It is common knowledge that he amassed huge amounts of money as Education Minister. The resignation of the Education Minister, however, is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg!
The Revolution has begun… But is it from the frying pan into the fire? The appointment of another hard-core RSS man, Prahlad Joshi, to succeed Pradhan is certainly no solution. Everyone knows that! In March 2022, at the height of the Russia–Ukraine war, when Indian students studying there had to be brought back, Joshi famously said, “Ninety per cent of Indians who study medicine abroad fail to clear qualifying exams in India.” He hurt the sentiments of many then. When the rapists of Bilkis Bano and the ones who brutally murdered her kith and kin were prematurely released a few years ago, it was he who defended their release. The Supreme Court later annulled the remission period granted to these rapists and murderers. To think that this man now presides over the education and future of our youth is, for most, totally unacceptable.
The Revolution has begun… The youth protesting in Jantar Mantar and elsewhere were loud and clear. They would never allow xenophobia, exclusivism, sectarianism or any form of bigotry to permeate their ideals, their dreams, their hopes for a better future. They visibly and vocally demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they were first and foremost citizens of the country, students and youth. They were of one heart and one mind, transcending the confines of every religion. They belonged to every strata of society. No one could divide them or pit them against each other—not the fascist, fundamentalist agenda of the regime. They were determined not to fall prey to insidious designs. With the Constitution in hand, they chanted in unison, “We are one, we shall overcome! Hum Honge Kaamyaab!”
The Revolution has begun… Arundhati Roy is one of the most celebrated and renowned Indian personalities today. In a hard-hitting and incisive article in The Wire (22 July 2026) entitled Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous, she writes, “For the first time in years, it feels wonderful to be Indian. Just when hope seemed lost, they came. Young roaches riding in on the rain. The progeny of the unholy union between a judge and a joke… The cockroaches took the capital city by storm. They came by train, by bus, by air, by metro, their numbers increasing by the hour. Hours before the first rays of sunlight lightened Delhi’s monsoon skies, they began to pour into Jantar Mantar in the tens of thousands. By sunrise it was clear that a generation of desperate and furious young people who have seen their future snuffed out before their eyes was going to reclaim what their parents’ and grandparents’ generations had conceded: our dignity as a people and as a country. Our rights as citizens of a democracy.”
The Revolution has begun… Thousands of students, youth and others have come out on the streets all over the country: in perhaps every big city and small town, in district headquarters and even in villages. This was not a paid mob mobilisation—as this current Government does so often! It was a spontaneous uprising, expressing their angst, their sense of outrage at what is happening to them, to the whole educational system, to the fact that twenty-one students committed suicide because of the NEET paper leakage. It reminded one of the Arab Spring, of what happened not too long ago in neighbouring Nepal and Sri Lanka, and they have come out in hordes everywhere in protest. Besides, in several countries across the world there have been protests in solidarity with what is happening in India. All major civil society organisations and movements have issued powerful statements of support to the students.
The Revolution has begun… In Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, the sight was unbelievable—something never seen in recent years. Groups of students walking together, singing as though they were on a picnic. There were droves of them, shouting slogans of course: “Modi hatao! Desh bachao!” People were rubbing their eyes and ears! This in Ahmedabad of all places! Well, it is happening! Some were detained! There were thousands of police and security personnel (with guns and armoured vehicles) in the Gujarat University area. They could do nothing. The students and youth were not “in assembly”—just walking. And can anyone stop people walking? They were walking for change! The political masters, of course, will never forget the Nav Nirman agitation of 1974 and how a Government was overthrown!
The Revolution has begun… Indian academic and social analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta, in an article, ‘Cockroaches’ have shown us what it means to be courageous citizens — not subjects (Indian Express, 27 July 2026), speaks plainly, saying, “The farmers’ agitation had made the government withdraw legislation. But this is the first time that the government has acknowledged the need for taking responsibility and being held accountable… There are glorious moments when the youth of the nation demonstrate that they are indeed the genuine trustees of posterity, to borrow Benjamin Disraeli’s phrase. A generation that has been catastrophically failed by their elders, who bequeathed to them authoritarianism, communalism, a failing education system, an administrative state marked by impunity, and an atmosphere of suffocating fear, decided to take their future into their own hands. They made a regime and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, intoxicated with fantasies of total power, look out of touch, small and ridiculous. By itself, the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan will not bring change. But India’s young have shown that the regime is vulnerable. We can still pull back from the abyss.”
The Revolution has begun… Rhiya Ahir courageously demonstrated the power of one: the power of youth, the power of women! On 22 July she went to the protest rally in Shivaji Park, Mumbai. As she was walking towards the venue, she noticed a police van packed with youth who had been detained. The sight immediately disturbed her, and she says, “The van was stuffed from the front to the back. There was no space to stand.” She did not know anyone inside. She plucked up courage to stand in front of the van, not allowing it to proceed. What followed was a heated exchange with the police. They knew they were wrong, Rhiya asserts. They finally relented and released all the youth they had detained. The defining pictures and videos of Rhiya preventing the police van from moving went viral!
The Revolution has begun… Godimedia has been singing the tunes of the ruling regime to no end. The mainstream media has been bought up, corrupted, co-opted and threatened. For several days, they did not take cognisance of the Jantar Mantar protest. The prestigious UK newspaper The Guardian (26 July 2026), in a lead analysis piece, India’s Cockroach Janta Party protest victory signals trouble ahead for Modi, puts it succinctly: “Modi had also lost another medium critical to the BJP’s domination over the national narrative—the mainstream TV news channels widely acknowledged to have been co-opted by the BJP government over the past 12 years and turned into mouthpieces for its right-wing Hindu nationalist ideology. Initially, the channels ignored the protests, and when they did cover them, it was to suggest the protesters were being bankrolled by sinister foreign forces and Pakistani terror groups. In response, the protesters turned on the channels, using social media to expose their ‘lies’. When the protests escalated, Modi remained conspicuously absent from the airwaves.” Interestingly, since times are changing, godified media, like a chameleon, is also changing colours. Foreign media have editorials and articles on this!
The Revolution has begun… The ‘Sansad Chalo’ march to Parliament on 20 July was proof enough of this fact! The fact that hundreds of thousands, from all walks of life, began this historic march was a breakthrough in the recent annals of the country. There was panic among the ruling regime. They spared no effort to stop the march. All police and paramilitary forces were called out. Thousands of the marchers were baton-charged, beaten, and pellet guns were used against them. Many had to be hospitalised. This ensured a groundswell of protests all over the country. On 27 July, the Supreme Court said, “The right to peaceful, lawful protest is absolutely guaranteed under the Constitution. So long as it is peaceful agitation, merely because there is agitation, there can’t be lathi-charge. Police excesses must be inquired into.” The Bihar youth are still under attack by the ruling regime. They seem to have forgotten that in 1974, the JP Andolan began in Patna, Bihar!
The Revolution has begun… The Jantar Mantar protest was about reclaiming shrinking democratic space in the country. And wow, it succeeded tremendously—with a profound impact everywhere. The right to dissent is back on the big canvas. People are out on the streets. It is significant that while delivering the 4th Justice G.P. Singh Memorial Lecture at the National Law Institute University in Bhopal on 25 July, Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan referred to the right to dissent. He said, “It will not be an exaggeration to say that public space for expressing divergent opinion is shrinking in India. The right to express one’s views and to demonstrate peacefully are fundamental freedoms guaranteed to citizens. Debate and dissent are the essence of democracy… Unfortunately, even normal activities are being criminalised. Students protesting on campuses are arrested, and they do not get bail for 30 to 40 days. They are suspended, for which they have to go to court. It takes time. These issues raise serious questions.” The last thirty-five days are changing things!
The Revolution has begun… against corruption. The youth are not going to take things lying down anymore—not only corruption in education, but corruption that has permeated every strata of society, beginning right at the top. There is a lack of accountability and transparency. Much has to be addressed: demonetisation, electoral bonds, the PM CARES Fund, and now the E20 (the E20 Janata Party is on the rise). More questions will be asked. Where did the RSS and BJP get the enormous amounts of money to put up palatial buildings everywhere? What about the crony capitalist friends who profiteer at the cost of the poor and by looting the country? What about electoral malpractices: the manipulation of EVMs and the meticulous disenfranchisement, through SIR, of thousands of legitimate citizens everywhere?
The Revolution has begun… In a strongly worded statement on 27 July, the Cockroach Janata Party said, “We are observing a complete breach of the agreement regarding no police action against the protestors. Hundreds of students have been arrested in Bihar and Bengal, and hundreds are being shrivelled/harassed in Delhi and other states. Multiple reports are emerging in Delhi around the detention of volunteers supporting protestors with logistics. We demand that all the FIRs against the protestors be immediately withdrawn, students be released, and no future FIRs be filed (in line with our agreement) by Delhi Police / Central investigative agencies / Police in BJP-allied states, FAILING WHICH WE WILL BE FORCED TO SIT ON PROTEST AGAIN. We also demand that the written agreement around legal cases be shared with us by tomorrow, along with the aligned timelines with the Government of India.” Yes, the protests are not a flash-in-the-pan!
One has had enough of references to the past: from the French Revolution to the Quit India Movement! The Revolution has begun indeed… and there is no looking back!
27 July 2026
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*Human rights, reconciliation and peace activist & writer
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