Hyderabad: July 25, 2026, would go down in Indian history as a red-letter day. Not because the invincible Narendra Modi government was forced to catapult before a group of youngsters who had no experience in public relations, strategy or deep pockets. The resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan could be an achievement for the organisers of student protests, especially the Cockroach Janata Party, but this day holds greater significance than the exit of a minister.
If you want to know the importance of the current student protests, you need to understand the main contribution of successful movements to society. Apart from successfully achieving the immediate goal, every successful movement creates a new crop of leadership.
The Indian National Congress was the first such organised movement in India, which apart from becoming the catalyst for India’s independence, has created a leadership that survived for at least 50 years. The 1970s Janata movement created leaders who broke the Congress’ monopoly on power.
Though the Janata government ended prematurely, the leaders that this movement had created dominated the political landscape in several states for the next several decades. The leaders who came from this movement were George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Sushil Kumar Modi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, H.D. Deve Gowda, Ram Vilas Paswan, among others.
A similar struggle called Vande Mataram Movement in the 1930s in the Hyderabad princely state, involving students of Osmania University, produced many leaders, including P.V. Narasimha Rao, who went on to become the prime minister of India.
The Ram Janmabhoomi movement created a whole new generation of leaders for the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Anna Hazare Movement for establishment of anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal created several leaders, who founded a new party called Aam Aadmi Party. Though many leaders from this movement left politics subsequently, the party still holds power in one state and remains the prime opposition party in another state.
When seen in this backdrop, the current student movement will have wider ramifications. Unlike Anna Hazare Movement which mostly propagated by television channels, which are essentially one-way communication mediums, the current Cockroach Janata Party led protests were driven by social media, which allows users to take active participation.
Inspired by content from Jantar Mantar, thousands of youth have generated memes supporting the student movement and deriding the Narendra Modi government’s reluctance to sack Pradhan, who had become a key target for the successive exam paper leaks. When Pradhan resigned, it was the moment of triumph for not just students protesting at Jantar Mantar, but it was a validation of youth power for crores of Indians, especially youngsters who were following the protests and police action in Delhi.
The immediate spin-off would be the creation of a politically active generation, which doesn't fear confrontation. Some of them may eventually become leaders – and also ministers, chief ministers, and Prime Ministers. Whether these new leaders crystalise their ideology like socialists, or get coopted into the existing political ideologies are the trillion-dollar questions which only time will answer. In a nutshell, India is on cusp of change.