Long Live The Struggle Of Indian Youth Against Neoliberal Education And The US-Backed Modi-Shah Regime!
ILPS lauds the Indian youth for their militant weeks-long struggle in Delhi and across the country against the great crisis of youth unemployment and the neo-liberal education system in India. While the protests have succeeded in achieving one of their major demands for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradan, the government has reneged on other minimum demands such as scrapping the centralized National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) entrance exams, withdrawing cases against protestors, and compensation to the families of students who committed suicide. The League calls on its members to support the anti-imperialist and democratic youth in India as they continue arousing, organizing, and mobilizing against all neo-liberal schemes such as India’s New Economic Policy (NEP) 2020 and all other issues that continue to plague India, caused by US imperialism in alliance with the Hindutva fascist Modi-Shah regime.
A government leak of the annual NEET exam questions by corrupt officials prompted the state to cancel the tests without proper reimbursement, forcing students to pay another exam fee. This led to the suicide of 22 students due to stress and the high costs of reapplication. Since the 1990s, the Indian education system has become increasingly privatized and run for profit, forcing its students into a hyper-competitive culture as costs rise, corruption increases, and services decline. As opportunities for jobs after graduation continue to shrink due to the decline in India’s economy, the youth have been left in a downward spiraling situation economically and mentally.
Instead of the sympathizing with the condition of youth within India, Chief Justice Surya Kant referred to unemployed youth that have criticized the ruling government as ‘cockroaches’ and ‘parasites of society’, prompting in response the creation of a broad movement under the banner of the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ amongst the youth. Shortly after, the Cockroach Janta Party launched its protests on June 6th in Delhi. They were enjoined by youth mass organizations such as, but not limited to, All India Students’ Federation, Students’ Federation of India, and All India Students’ Association, which have aided in giving structure to the spontaneous mobilizations.
Reverberations were felt across the country. Youth of all religions were protesting hand-in-hand, marking the first large-scale protest of youth in India standing in direct opposition to the Hindutva fascist Modi-Shah regime since the 2019 National Register of Citizens – Citizenship Amendment Act (NRC-CAA) protests. Subsequent police brutality was unleashed on the protests across the country, disproportionately targeting Muslim youth in states such as West Bengal and arresting over 100 youth across the country, but the struggles on the streets persisted.
On July 25th, these protests were able to achieve the basic demand of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as well as the government’s ‘commitment’ to withdraw cases against protestors and provide compensation to the families of students who committed suicide. As expected, the government reneged on these commitments, with the Hindutva fascist Chief Minister of West Bengal alleging the protests were “made by Muslims”. Regardless, the youth are undeterred and personalities associated with Cockroach Janta Party are calling for more protests in response.
According to the World Bank, unemployment of youth ages 15-24 in India is a staggering 17.7%. Pulling the veil, it is likely far higher than this given that India’s workforce is 90% informal, which imperialist institutions such as the World Bank count as employment in the figure above. There are further reports stating that 40% of India’s college graduates aged 15-25 and 20% of those aged 25-29 are jobless. Eighty percent of colleges and universities are privatized, resulting in high hikes in tuition and fees. Neoliberal policies such as the recent NEP of 2020 have been passed under the guise of “Aatma Nirbhar” (self-reliance), shorthand for austerity for university funding and instead elevating public-private partnerships.
These conditions are due to India’s economic and political domination by the United States. Since India’s balance-of-payments crisis in 1991, it began to accept IMF loans that have liberalized, privatized, deregulated, and denationalized India’s economy, worsening its already underdeveloped semi-feudal, semi-colonial society. As the crisis worsened, fascist Hindutva forces such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and their electoral party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have taken power within this decaying society. Closely aligned with compradors such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, the exploitation, plunder, and export of the Indian peoples’ labor, land, and resources has exponentially risen to provide super-profits for U.S. imperialism and a cut for its local lackeys.
The almost two-month long demonstrations in India have been the latest in the youth protests of the last two years known as the “Gen Z Protests”, with youth demonstrating against worsening livelihoods, corruption, rising fascism, and for a better future in countries such as Kenya, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, and now India.
Fundamental change is still needed in India more than ever. ILPS South Asia calls on its members and ILPS members around the world to continue offering their solidarity to the Indian youth bravely organizing and taking to the streets to achieve even greater systemic change, such as scrapping the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and NEET, dissolving the NTA that was responsible for the test leaks, and having free education and guarantee of employment for all youth. The movement behind these demands has the power to become an even broader mass movement to end the neo-liberal education system in India on the road to definitively smash imperialism and all reaction once and for all.
Signed,
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
August 5, 2026
Source : https://peoplesstruggle.org/en/long-live-the-struggle-of-indian-youth-against-neoliberal-education-and-the-us-backed-modi-shah-regime/