BJP leaders, allies urge Centre to treat youth protests with empathy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of setting up fast-track courts to deal with paper leak cases, in the first such outreach to young protesters at Jantar Mantar, may be an attempt to focus on what first triggered the protests, but sections of the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance feel the issue has become a lightning rod for a host of grievances of the younger generation.

Also read: Jantar Mantar protest updates on July 23

Murli Manohar Joshi, who was Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, on Thursday said on X that protesting students should be dealt with sensitively and with empathy, and decried the brutal handling of protesters by law enforcement agencies. “It is painful to see young students from different parts of the country assembled for days on the streets of New Delhi. Their anxieties and concerns regarding the examination system are genuine and must be handled with empathy and a desire to find a lasting solution,” he posted. He added it was “very painful to see that even young girls were brutally mishandled”, a course of action that would only alienate a large section of the population from the “national goal of Viksit Bharat”. “I fervently hope that this is not treated merely as a law-and-order issue to be tackled through the use of force,” he said.

Mr. Joshi’s sentiments found echoes among a section of BJP leaders. Asking not to be named, they said the issue is no longer just about the NEET paper leak, and that the heavy-handedness with which the protesters were handled when they marched to Parliament on Monday was reactive and showed that the agencies were under-prepared for the crowd that showed up.

“From what I have heard at the protest site [Jantar Mantar], the place has become a meeting ground for anyone who has a grievance against the government,” said a BJP MP. He admitted that while getting the protesters to go back home was an immediate priority, the BJP will have to renegotiate its relationship with the younger generation in the long term.

NDA allies also shared concerns over the way the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was physically removed from his protest site outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence, and the pictures that poured out in the national and international press thereafter.

“Unfortunately, things were not handled well at all, but the more worrying thing is that the protests appear to be leaderless as well, now that Sonam Wangchuk has been hospitalised. The moral authority of guiding a protest movement is essential for any resolution,” said a senior NDA MP.