From IAC to paper leaks: Why anti-system movements pose a unique political challenge | Explained
The story so far: The student-led protests over recurring examination paper leaks and the conduct of the NEET examination have inevitably drawn comparisons with the
The story so far: The student-led protests over recurring examination paper leaks and the conduct of the NEET examination have inevitably drawn comparisons with the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement that rattled the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between 2011 and 2013. The immediate triggers are different: corruption under the UPA and the credibility of public examinations under the Democratic Alliance (NDA). Yet both movements display the potential to disrupt politics by presenting an outsider’s challenge to the political establishment. Just as allegations of corruption came to symbolise perceived governance failure during the latter years of the Manmohan Singh government, recurring examination leaks have increasingly become a test of the BJP-led government’s promise of efficient and transparent governance. Battle of narratives Established parties carry ideological baggage, the trappings of power and electoral compulsions, making it difficult for them to convincingly channel public anger against the political system itself. The IAC movement consciously projected itself as a citizens’ campaign, even though the Congress-led UPA maintained that it represented a collaboration between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and civil society activists.
Regardless of the competing claims, the movement’s carefully crafted narrative of political independence enabled it to attract support cutting across ideological and social divides. A similar dynamic is visible in the present agitation. Although Opposition parties have backed the students’ demands, the protests derive much of their legitimacy from remaining student-led rather than party-led, with innovator-turned-activist Sonam Wangchuk emerging as their principal public face. Once a movement is seen as an extension of an Opposition party, governments can more easily dismiss it as routine political mobilisation instead of acknowledging it as an expression of wider public discontent. It is perhaps for this reason that sections of BJP supporters have alleged that the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has emerged as a principal force behind the students’ protests in Delhi, is being guided by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke had earlier volunteered for AAP and worked with Manish Sisodia. Whether or not such allegations are substantiated, they reflect a familiar political strategy: questioning a movement’s claim to independence by portraying it as a proxy for an established political rival.
The BriefWire