While I am writing this, the Gen Z(iddi) is celebrating fulfilment of its demand of resignation of Dharmender Pradhan as the education minister, whose long tenure in the education ministry was an abysmal failure. His reign over the ministry was replete with multiple leakages of important exam papers, closure of multiple government schools and overall deterioration in the standards of education in the country. The leakage of recent NEET paper and resultant suicide by several students was the last straw that led to large scale protests to demand political accountability from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP-led) Union government via his resignation. Also read: Control Over Education Is Critical for the RSS. The Sacking of Pradhan Is a Major Setback for ItThis is a historic moment for the youth of the country. This also is a first in the 12-year reign of the present BJP government, which steadfastly refuses to fix responsibility or political accountability for abject failures and corruption of its ministers.The government tried the proverbial saam (persuation), daam (allurement through money), dand (punishment) and bhed (espionage) to break the will of youth involved in protests but to no avail. However, before we analyse how the government dealt with these protest, it is important to put the sequence of events leading to the protests in perspective. A security official fires tear gas shells to disperse the demonstrators during the protest at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi on July 25, 2026. Photo: PTI/Karma Bhutia.Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) which organised the protests – many suspect – was propped up by the BJP itself to diffuse the rising impatience of Gen Z over repeated paper leaks, a sentiment which was being echoed by Rahul Gandhi, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, through public rallies and also by raising it in parliament. That the protests will gain such momentum as to galvanise people of all ages and strata all over the country to demand accountability for umpteen failures of policies and the hiatus between the promises and actual performance on ground was not anticipated by those who had been clandestinely promoting CJP. The Union government was thus caught off guard and was thus rendered clueless as to how to deal with the youth which was defiant and totally absolutely irreverent.The protests provided a platform to people to openly express their angst. Massive crowds across the country were raising plethora of issues like unaffordable higher education, pathetic educational infrastructure, rising cost of living, high unemployment and general deterioration in standards of living. The suppressed feelings of masses had found an outlet. The CJP leadership, under these circumstances, was no longer in control and had become irrelevant. The government failed to act upon the first principle of resolving a problem – saam or persuasion – by not opening a channel of communication till it had become too late and protesters were already marching towards parliament.The second principle – daam i.e. allurement – could not have been effective on the Gen Z as they being in their early twenties or even younger didn’t have a baggage which could be exploited to allure them over or scare them to retreat, a practice the ruling BJP reportedly frequently employs to buy or coerce politicians to change parties and garner support.Police try to evict Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) supporters during a protest march near the parliament, outside RBI building in New Delhi on July 20, 2026. Photo: PTI/Gurinder Osan.The unafraid youth took to open defiance and freely expressed their displeasure with the policies of the government. The tech savvy youth ensured that their angst was adequately expressed through slogans, live streaming of happenings on the internet and some extremely hilarious and eye catching memes criticising – even ridiculing the policies as well as personalities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. That mainstream media did not give enough coverage to the protests did not matter at all because of adequate coverage by several small independent social media channels. The common public was thus well aware of the happenings at the protest site and voices raised against the failures of the Union government. The adverse publicity through social media campaign rattled the authorities and finally dialogue was initiated. The third and fourth principles – dand (punishment) and bhed (espionage) – too failed to achieve any result. In fact, the brutal force and human rights violations committed by the Delhi Police further cemented the resolve of protesters to carry on with their demands. The presence of police personnel and people allegedly related to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal etc within the crowd to instigate protesters too failed because of repeated appeals by organisers to be aware of such elements and not to give in to rumours.The government, having failed in all their machinations, to break the resolve of youth and organic spread of protests were rattled after failing to deter protesters through brute physical force. The authorities adopted use of nonphysical force which is not only unethical but also against human values. These steps tantamount to treating the young protesters as enemies.Illustration: Pencil Ashan.The first and foremost effort was to cut off supply of food to the protesters. Some activists alleged that the Delhi government had instructed gurudwaras to desist from providing food and shelter to protesters. They also alleged that gurudwaras were asked not to set up langars near the protest site at Jantar Mantar. Gurudwaras and reportedly even mosques ignored these instructions. Ironically, temples in the vicinity allegedly closed their doors and refused to help protesters in any manner.Several good samaritans from far flung places who supported the cause of protesters and wanted to help them, while remaining anonymous, ordered large quantities of food through food delivery apps which was delivered at the protest site. The Delhi Police on July 24 even sent out an advisory restricting delivery apps to deliver food to protestors.🚨 Traffic AdvisoryIn view of the prohibitory orders under Section 163 BNSS, 2023, citizens are advised to avoid unnecessary travel to the notified area and use alternate routes wherever possible.App-based mobility, ride-hailing, food delivery, logistics and e-commerce… pic.twitter.com/k3mYGU0I52— Delhi Traffic Police (@dtptraffic) July 24, 2026This was clearly a sadistic move on part of authorities. The denials issued by the police doesn’t stand scrutiny. The youth is future of India and they are fighting for betterment of systems. Such orders are condemnable and whosoever thought of issuing these must be taken to task. The authorities must realise that such draconian instructions will cause further resentment and alienation amongst the youth. What is this then?https://t.co/BJ5sgrWjxn https://t.co/7CeS1FtDQv pic.twitter.com/hDBRzBh5Qq— Vijaita Singh (@vijaita) July 24, 2026Several restaurants in the vicinity were also reportedly supplying free food at the protest site. In order to prevent this, the police issued orders for closure of all eateries and shops in the nearby area including Connaught Place. When this did not prevent supply of food, they reportedly resorted to collection of discarded wrappers to identify restaurants which were still supplying food. Besides attempts to prevent food from reaching protesters, the authorities also closed as many as 17 metro stations in the vicinity of Jantar Mantar. These remained closed at different times for over four days causing inconvenience to common people as they were prevented from reaching their workplaces. Video screengrab showing police stopping students at Nizamuddin. Video: Atul Ashok Howale.People were stopped even in places as far away as Nizamuddin and Jamia on the suspicion that they were going to join the protests. Not only this, several people have claimed that their Instagram reach was cut down drastically.It is apparent that the government having failed in controlling the protests through establishing communication channels tried not only brute force but also unethical and immoral means to stop them. This points towards the tendency of the government to adopt dictatorial means to prevent people from voicing their dissent. This doesn’t augur well as we are gradually progressing towards becoming a police state.George Orwell had prophesied that such a situation would arise by 1984. It didn’t then. However, there are fair chances of him being proved right in near future. S.K. Sood is the former Additional Director General of the Border Security Force.