Youth be engaged in education reforms & setting up our own information technology ecosystem that’s youthful, open, competitive, cost effective.
K.A. Badarinath
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to forgive youngsters who abused him and his late mother, large number of sneers and jeers were let out by anti-social elements that infiltrated the students protests held by Cockroach Janata Party (CJP).
Prime Minister Modi striking a ‘conciliatory’ note in his insta videos to begin a substantial conversation with Gen Z and Alpha Z was unexpected for his political rivals and hooligans that were seeking relevance in the face of students and youth unrest.
But then, spread of CJP protests in some states that hitherto did not see any movement reflected that restlessness within the youth was being utilized as a trigger to spread unrest and lawlessness.
Such protests against paper leaks and exams related malpractices also spread in states like Jharkhand and Punjab where the opposition parties were in the saddle.
Protests and largescale violence in opposition ruled states did not get the kind of attention from certain media outs that chose deliberately to play down the incidents.
One big lesson for those in administration and governance across political spectrum is that youth seek ‘meaningful and serious engagement’ on their issues.
Hooligans, rowdy sheeters, drug peddlers, rape accused apart from Islamist radicals and church-led proselytisers, youth and students have thrown up a serious challenge for reworking in the way Bharatiya society is run.
Many analysts dashed off the 49-days protests as spontaneous outburst coupled with some deft backroom management by confirmed anti-national characters.
Given that Bharat has the largest youth and student force with over 800 million aged under 35-years, their voice be heard, engaged, taken on board and a scientific understanding of the issues undertaken.
Reforming education in a large diverse country and aligning it with aspirational youth is non-negotiable and needs to be comprehensively done to restore its credibility and emerge as global educational hub for innovation, research as well.
Finding solutions to multiplicity of problems faced by Bharatiya people and communities internationally through this huge trained workforce should be the idea.
Secondly, given the aspirational nature of upwardly progressive Bharat, setting up our own information ecosystem that’s more youthful and competitive on quality and price parameters as against world wide web and technology giants like Google is something that this movement has taught us.
Given that a good number of young IT professionals joined the Jantar Mantar protests, repurposing their energies to evolve a new model for IT governance may work.
Instead of false narratives being pushed by influencers and agenda-based handlers holding the sway, developing our own internet-based information highway with last mile delivery and servers based out of India is what needs to be prioritized.
A parallel IT ecosystem, internet-based information highway that’s competitive both in terms of quality and pricing needs to be put in place while global technology players reform the way they seek to engage with Bharat. In this context, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications & Information Technology headed by Nishikant Dubey is significant. The all party panel has demanded a personal apology from Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg for having taken down a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In effect, the policymakers in India are questioning the role of these technology companies during the CJP protests, comments on 2024 elections etc.
Since protests and founding of CJP were an offshoot of an IT based campaign, reforming our technology policy and hastening it up is an imperative.
In our case, Chinese model of IT system and governance may not work. China may have taken an extreme position with complete ban on access to Google or other western search engines with Baidu having a virtual monopoly in sync with Communist Party of China’s agenda to deny free speech, limit access to information and conversations.
Sensing the uneasiness in its own youth, in May 2026, China launched a massive campaign to cajole its youngsters and pull them out of ‘extreme pessimism’ or mollify them from posing serious questions on the country’s economic future.
Cyber Administration of China’s drive may not be workable for open debate and conversation with youngsters having fresh ideas, ideological proclivities and idiosyncrasies.
In a free and open democratic polity like India that still runs on civilizational ethos and strength of its cultural diversity, controls and regulations may not be an option.
Latest protests and mobilization done by Cockroach Janata Party should serve as a trigger not only to reform the education system but rejig the content for our youngsters, decolonize their mindset from European imposition of Macauly’s model and hold conversations and engagement with students.
For instance, can we engage with them on all educational and societal issues via technology platforms? Institutionalizing this engagement is something that the central government and states can consider seriously.
For instance, skills, work opportunities, history and evolution of Bharat should form core of educational reforms even as processes are being redone.
All sectors of economy, development and community life having direct linkages with technology should also be conversed widely to evolve a consensus.
For instance, what works for our villages, towns, cities and the society should be decided in conjunction with youngsters. A wider and deeper debate on education coupled with revamping our IT ecosystem is the only way forward.
(Author is Director & Chief Executive of non-partisan think tank, Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies based in New Delhi. He’s a veteran newsman also)