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By:

Rajendra Joshi

3 December 2024 at 9:20:26 am

The Warning Beyond NEET

The Jantar Mantar protests exposed the widening gap between education, employment and growth. The month-long protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar may have formally ended, but the political and economic questions it raised will linger. Triggered by the NEET paper leak, the movement became a major expression of youth discontent. What began as a demand for a fair examination system became a broader indictment of an economic model that promises opportunity but increasingly fails to deliver...

The Warning Beyond NEET

The Jantar Mantar protests exposed the widening gap between education, employment and growth. The month-long protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar may have formally ended, but the political and economic questions it raised will linger. Triggered by the NEET paper leak, the movement became a major expression of youth discontent. What began as a demand for a fair examination system became a broader indictment of an economic model that promises opportunity but increasingly fails to deliver employment. The government initially treated the protests as a law-and-order issue. That changed when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the ruling establishment, publicly criticised police action and expressed solidarity with the students. The subsequent resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, withdrawal of criminal cases and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's endorsement of the integrity and aspirations of India's Gen Z transformed the political narrative. The issue had moved beyond examination reform to whether India's development model is serving its young citizens. The NEET paper leak was merely the spark. The fuel had accumulated through rising educated unemployment, declining confidence in public institutions and growing frustration among millions of young Indians. Education is increasingly seen as an uncertain investment rather than a guaranteed pathway to opportunity. Every examination scandal reinforces the perception that merit alone is insufficient, while recruitment delays deepen the belief that the system is failing those who have done everything expected of them. India has celebrated its demographic dividend for nearly two decades, projecting its young workforce as its greatest competitive advantage. But demographic dividends are never automatic. They generate prosperity only when education is matched by employment, productivity and rising incomes. Otherwise, they become demographic liabilities that breed frustration rather than growth. The evidence suggests India is approaching that inflection point. GDP has expanded impressively over the past two decades, yet employment has failed to keep pace. Employment elasticity has weakened sharply. During the 1980s, every percentage point of GDP growth generated roughly half a percentage point increase in employment. Today the ratio is estimated at about 0.16, among the lowest for major emerging economies. Growth continues; jobs do not. This disconnect reflects India's growth strategy. Public policy has increasingly favoured capital-intensive industries through subsidies, tax incentives and investment support. Such sectors contribute to output and productivity but generate relatively fewer jobs. Agriculture continues to suffer from incomplete reforms and low productivity. Manufacturing has not expanded fast enough to absorb new workers, while artificial intelligence and automation are reducing opportunities in occupations once regarded as gateways to middle-class prosperity. India thus faces a paradox: it is producing more graduates while creating fewer opportunities to absorb them. The comparison with Asia is instructive. Vietnam and Bangladesh have pursued manufacturing-led growth that has generated substantially higher employment relative to economic expansion. Vietnam's employment-to-population ratio is estimated at nearly three-fourths, compared with about one-half in India. Vietnam has also moved into the upper-middle-income category, while India remains a lower-middle-income economy. These comparisons do not diminish India's achievements. They highlight the urgency of correcting structural weaknesses before they become politically destabilising. History demonstrates the risks of prolonged youth unemployment. The Arab Spring showed how educated but unemployed youth can transform political landscapes. More recently, political instability in Bangladesh and Nepal has reflected frustration among younger populations facing shrinking opportunities. India's democratic institutions are stronger, and its circumstances are different. Yet no democracy can indefinitely ignore the aspirations of its largest demographic group. The significance of Jantar Mantar lies here. India's Gen Z is organised, digitally connected and politically conscious. Social media transformed local grievances into a national movement within days, while traditional political parties largely responded after the sentiment had acquired independent momentum. The RSS intervention further complicated the government's challenge. Once protesting students found resonance within the ideological ecosystem closest to the ruling establishment, the issue ceased to be a partisan confrontation. It became an internal warning that India's youth expect credible institutions, transparent examinations and, above all, meaningful employment. The Centre's examination reforms are necessary but insufficient. Restoring the credibility of competitive examinations addresses only one symptom. The larger challenge is to redesign India's growth strategy around employment. Labour-intensive manufacturing, support for small and medium enterprises, investment in skills, higher-education reform and greater attention to employment outcomes must become central to economic planning. The Jantar Mantar agitation should not be remembered simply as the NEET protests. It marked a moment when India's youngest generation questioned the assumptions underlying the country's development model. Governments can manage protests and reform examinations. But unless economic growth translates into broad-based employment, similar movements will return. India's demographic dividend remains its greatest opportunity. It could equally become its greatest challenge. The warning has been delivered. The question is whether policymakers are prepared to listen.

An Open Letter to the Terrorists Who Attacked Pahalgam

You bunch of spineless cowards. It is well past midnight and I just can’t sleep. Not after hearing of your gruesome, senseless killing of innocent people in my motherland. You sick people.


I write to you as a furious, heart-broken Indian Muslim. A man whose soul is torn between unimaginable grief and blazing rage. When you attacked civilians in Pahalgam, you pierced through the heart of every Indian who still believes in unity, in peace, in justice.


I speak not just as an individual, but as the son of a family that has lived and breathed service to this nation. Patriotism runs through my veins. My father, Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah, retired as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff and later became a voice for the Muslim intelligentsia as the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. His younger brother, the celebrated actor Naseeruddin Shah and my father’s elder brother, a respected IITian, have all been honoured by the President of India for their distinguished contributions to this great nation.


My family has always been treated with dignity, and I have always been a proud Indian before being anything else. It is from this legacy of honour, service and nation-first values that I draw my strength. It is exactly this legacy that makes your actions even more revolting to me.


So many of the films I’ve acted in—stories that celebrated love, sacrifice, unity—were shot in the breathtaking valleys of Pahalgam and across Kashmir. National award-winning films like ‘Haider,’ ‘BajrangiBhaijaan,’ ‘Mojhi’ and the web series Avrodh (where I portrayed a Para Commando) were born in these very lands you’ve tried to desecrate. I’ve walked those serene paths and seen firsthand the harmony that lives in every fold of those hills. In my TEDx talks across the world, I’ve spoken of India’s soul, its strength in diversity, its unmatched spiritual and cultural richness. And today, you have tried to rip that soul apart.


But your bullets cannot silence beauty. Your hatred cannot erase harmony. Pahalgam is a living memory of what India truly stands for. And by spilling blood on its soil, you’ve not weakened us. You’ve reminded us of what we must protect with more resolve than ever before.


You claim to ‘fight’ for something. For what? For Islam? For Kashmir? Don’t insult our intelligence. You are not freedom fighters. You are butchers; cowards hiding behind guns, masks and false slogans. You targeted simple tourists, children, mothers, pilgrims, newlyweds—unarmed, defenceless human beings. And you dare to call this Jihad?


No, this is not Jihad. Jihad means “struggle.” What you did was ‘gunah’—sin, bloodshed and a betrayal of both humanity and God. You’ve dragged the name of Allah through the blood-soaked soil of Pahalgam. You’ve taken a religion of peace, twisted and misinterpreted it, and turned it into a weapon of terror.


I am ashamed that you and I were born into the same faith because we are nothing alike. My religion is humanity. The Islam I know teaches me to protect the innocent. Yours glorifies slaughter. My Islam teaches me to serve my country.


Today, because of you, I now carry a burden I never asked for. Every time someone hears a Muslim name or sees a skullcap, there’s suspicion in their eyes. All because of you. Right-thinking, patriotic Muslims who love their motherland are forced to explain, defend and apologize for crimes they never committed and beliefs they never endorsed.


You’ve taken lives. But worse, you’ve tried to take away trust. You’ve tried to make it impossible for an Indian Muslim to love his country openly, freely without being questioned. That is your real crime. And guess what? You’ve failed. You will always fail.


Because we, the real Muslims, the real Indians, are still standing. And we are furious. Not afraid, furious. We will not be pushed into corners. We will not be silenced by your bullets. We will not let you rewrite what it means to be one of us. To the people of India, please do not confuse these monsters with your Muslim brothers and sisters. We are bleeding with you. We are angry with you. And we are not your enemy. We are just as victimised by these cowards as every other Indian.


You are nothing but a blot, a rotting scar on the face of humanity. But this country, this unity, this idea of India is eternal. You tried to terrorize us. But you’ve only awakened us. To the families in Pahalgam, I offer not just prayers, but a promise: we shall not forget nor forgive. We will not rest until your loss echoes in the conscience of this country and justice is served. You terrorists are not ‘Muslims.’ The Muslim community around the world disowns you. You didn’t just attack Kashmir. You attacked all of us. And we will rise—as a nation, as Indians.


Jai Hind.


(The author is a former military officer, motivational speaker and actor.)

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