Every parent knows there comes a moment when raising your voice no longer works.
The child grows taller, develops opinions, discovers Google, and suddenly your famous line, “Because I said so,” loses all its magical powers.
Unfortunately, some governments never graduate from parenthood.
Watching the young protesters gathering at Jantar Mantar, I cannot help wondering whether those in authority have mistaken leadership for discipline. When youngsters assemble with grievances, the first instinct seems to be to restrict timings, shut down the internet, surround them with barricades, drag them away, and hope the problem quietly disappears.
But ideas are strange creatures. You cannot handcuff them. You cannot switch them off with the internet. You cannot bundle them into police vans and imagine they will vanish.
In fact, the more pressure you apply, the stronger they often become.
Every family has seen it happen. The strict father lays down impossible rules. No discussion. No explanation. No questions. The son walks into his room, slams the door, and from that day onwards the conversation stops. Outwardly there is silence. Inwardly there is rebellion.
A nation is not very different.
Young people do not expect every demand to be accepted. What they long for is something far simpler.
They want to be heard.
They want somebody to look them in the eye and say, “Tell me why you are angry.”
That takes courage.
Real courage is not displayed behind rows of security personnel or from carefully scripted speeches. It is shown by walking into a crowd that disagrees with you, sitting on a plastic chair, accepting uncomfortable questions, and answering without the comfort of a teleprompter or rehearsed script.
History remembers such leaders.
It rarely remembers those who hid behind barricades.
Leadership has never been about proving who is stronger. Leadership is about calming storms before they become cyclones.
The youth of a nation are not enemies waiting to be defeated. They are tomorrow waiting to be understood.
Silence them today, and they will return tomorrow with louder voices.
Respect them today, and they may become your greatest partners in building the future.
A government should never fear its young people. It should fear the day the young stop believing anyone is willing to listen.
Because when dialogue dies, distrust is born.
And distrust is far more difficult to control than any protest.
The quickest way to lose the confidence of a generation is to treat it like a disobedient child.
The wisest way to win it is to do what every good father eventually learns to do.
Sit down. Listen. And talk
Without a teleprompter of course…!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Terrific. You can crush a movement but can never kill an idea whose time has come
Yesterday’s police brutality has changed our youth into cynical citizens who will have no faith in justice.
Good. Now the children know that authority is dead & heartless. They will lead a revolution soon. Hopefully.
Yes, we are headed into that as the Ostrich refuses to lift its head out of the sand!!
Yes, we are headed into that as the Ostrich refuses to lift its head out of the sand!! History shows what results in a Revolution.
Bob. Have you been watching the news feeds from Jantar Mantar? Where are the youth that you speak of… the NEET exam giving typeso?
A majority of the people there seem much older, and with their own political agendas like those asking for the release of Umar Khalid & Sharjeel Imam, others demanding Azadi for Kashmir, LGBTQ types defending their choice of gender, and politically motivated attention seekers like Arundhati Roy, Kunal Kamra, Shabana Azmi , Mahua Moitra etc. Where were the students? NOT THERE.
The permission that CJP had received for a NEET related protest had long expired. Now it had turned into a generally anti govt. tirade.
The police had given enough notice for the people to vacate the grounds. When they disobeyed, the police moved in. And those who were beaten with lathis were NOT students, but political activists and “Hire-a–Crowd” mob.
There is no identified leadership of the students. As and when it emerges I am sure the govt. will sit down and talk to them …. without a teleprompter.