Parliament Breach and the Issue of Unemployment: Time to Address Reasons Beyond Routine Speculations

Nearly a fortnight has passed after two young men breached the tight security apparatus in and around the Indian Parliament and staged a unique protest inside Lok Sabha capturing global attention. Of course, an investigation was announced by the government and some arrests were made even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah maintained a studied and stubborn silence. The top two leaders of the government refused even to respond to the demands from opposition members of parliament for an explanation. The resultant commotion in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha got aggravated when 146 MPs were suspended from parliament.

Clearly, the team of youngsters who had carried out the “parliament breach” had not just shaken the nation with their demonstration but created parliamentary history in Independent India on account of the aftermath of their actions too. However, there are no pointers as to how the investigation into the incident is progressing even after the passage of two weeks. It is also not clear whether the investigation has revealed any involvement of larger groups or forces in the planning and execution of the “parliament breach”.

To recount the happenings as they unfolded on December 13, 2023, two protesters jumped into the House from the visitors’ gallery causing alarm among parliamentarians. They were immediately overpowered by a group of MPs, but before that, they shouted slogans against the Narendra Modi government and released coloured smoke from canisters, which they had smuggled in despite the heavy security apparatus. Even as this was happening inside the House, two others released coloured smoke from canisters in the precincts of the parliament.

A total of six people including D. Manoranjan and Sagar Sharma, who trespassed into the Lok Sabha, Amol Shinde and Neelam Azad, who used smoke canisters in the Parliament campus, Lalit Jha, and Mahesh Kumawat, who allegedly helped Jha to organise the protest inside Parliament, have been arrested under sections 16 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act relating to terrorism. “They wanted to create a situation of anarchy to get their illegal demands met. Look at the time they chose – when Parliament session was going on,” Public Prosecutor Akhand Pratap Singh who appeared for Delhi Police told a Delhi court, adding that the ‘conspiracy’ was being hatched for nearly two years and the alleged conspirators held meetings in Delhi, Gurgaon and Mysore.

Despite such pronouncements, the probing agencies are yet to concretely reveal the actual motives behind the security breach or state with authority whether the incident was a handiwork of an enemy country or terrorist organisations. Still, large sections of influential media have already labelled the incident as another “parliament attack”. Sections of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar social media army did try to create narratives on the incident seeking to link certain Leftist organisations to it, but these have not gained much public traction.

Amid the media hoopla around the incident, the question arises whether there are reasons beyond routine speculations behind the incident. There can be little doubt that these youngsters were fully aware that they could even get shot dead for their “act of adventurism”.

Still, they chose to go ahead with their plan to vent their frustration over what they described as dictatorial attitude of the Modi government and its disregard for a gamut of issues such as growing unemployment, Manipur crisis and farm distress.

Does this “adventurism” point towards a simmering undercurrent of anger among unemployed youth which is not perceptible to even astute political observers of Indian polity? Is it an intense reaction to the current state of affairs in India ? A state of affairs depicted by one of the recently suspended MPs – Manoj Jha of the RJD – as one marked by efforts to create a country with “question free media, protest-free streets and opposition-free Parliament”. Was their extreme step prompted by what opposition leaders have been decrying as Modi government’s 3D vision towards democratic protests and demands: distortion, diversion and distraction? The ongoing weakening of the laws and institutions working towards protection of citizens’ rights only add to the force of these questions.

Incidentally, the Delhi High Court has stayed a lower court’s order that directed the police to supply a copy of the FIR to an accused in this case. That none of the arrested persons related to December 13 incident belonged to the so called “problematic” States like Kashmir, Punjab, or North-East, as well as the fact that none of them was a Muslim or Sikh is also significant in the context of these questions. Many opposition leaders and political commentators have expressed relief over this qualitative aspect of the incident. They have also pointed that if any of the attackers had been from these sections of society, the Hindutva communal forces would have created mayhem in the country. All these expressions speak volumes about Modi government’s approach towards democratic protests and demands of the citizens. Incidentally, the security breach coincided with the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Parliament of India. But those arrested in the case so far have Hindu names. The incident has yet not been linked with a Pakistani or Khalistani conspiracy either.

According to a majority of media reports, none of the arrested persons was gainfully employed and belonged to lower middle-class families. Manoranjan, who opened a canister inside the Lok Sabha, holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Vivekanand University. He used to help his father with his poultry business. Similarly, Sagar Sharma, who accompanied Manoranjan, had to drop out of school after Class 12 owing to financial constraints. He was working as an auto rickshaw driver, according to his parents. Neelam Verma, who protested outside Parliament, has done M.Phil in Sanskrit. Her mother has told media, “My daughter is not a terrorist. She was just depressed as she was unemployed.” Concurring the distressed mother’s views, many farmers and leaders of Khap panchayats have expressed solidarity with Neelam. Amol Shinde, who was accompanying Neelam outside the Parliament at the time of arrest, had complained to his parents that the COVID-19 lockdown destroyed his chances of joining the Army, and he has since been trying to clear police recruitment exams.

Rashtriya Lok Andolan (RLA), a Mumbai-based non-profit organization led by social activist Anna Hazare has offered legal assistance to Lalit Jha. “His family is too poor to arrange for a lawyer,” Kalpana Inamdar, an RLA activist, has been quoted as saying by Times of India. She added that the organisation didn’t support the step taken by Jha but it found merit in highlighting the issue of unemployment that Jha and his associates raised inside the Parliament. The RLA has put up posters at Lalit Jha’s village in Bihar’s Darbhanga district, describing the six accused persons as “revolutionaries.” Jha is also accused of circulating video clips of the protest outside the Parliament complex on social media.

All of them have reportedly been inspired by revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. Over 94 years ago, on April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt had thrown smoke bombs and pamphlets in Delhi’s Central Assembly from the visitor’s gallery. “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear, with these immortal words uttered on a similar occasion by Valiant, a French anarchist martyr, do we strongly justify this action of ours,” the HSRA pamphlet that Bhagat Singh and Dutt threw into the House read, asserting that intent was not to kill or hurt anyone.The sixth suspect Mahesh who surrendered with Lalit Jha told a Delhi court that he had studied only up to Class IX.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to create 10 lakh jobs in 1.5 years ahead of 2014 general election. Though the statement was clearly a climbdown from his 2014 poll promise of creating two crore jobs a year, many BJP leaders would agree that unemployment remains the most burning issue in the country. In fact, BJP MP Varun Gandhi had last year pressed on more fast-paced initiatives to fulfil the pledge of giving employment to two crore persons annually. As per the latest figures put out by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the employment-related indicators have been worsening in the post-pandemic period.

In recent years, the government has brutally crushed student protests against unemployment and recruitment scams. In January 2022, the UP police had thrashed students protesting in Prayagraj (Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh against the Railway Recruitment Board exam mess-up. The cops broke the doors of the lodges and hostels as viral videos on the social media revealed and used brute force against job aspirants who participated in a demonstration against alleged irregularities in a railway recruitment exam.

The angry anti-Agneepath scheme protests, which opposed the short-term government recruitment policy for aspiring soldiers in armed forces, were also quelled after the Indian Defence Ministry announced that those involved in any kind of violent protests and arson will not be admitted. There is no dearth of instances wherein the unemployed educated youth have been lathicharged and arrested for demanding jobs in the BJP ruled States and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

In fact, Modi government had completely failed to read the mood of farmers protesting against three controversial farm laws, which had to be withdrawn following year long agitation. While Modi government had promised double income to the farmers, there has been no let up in the farm suicides due to agrarian distress. As per recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, as many as 1,00,474 suicides were reported from the farming sector under Modi government (2014-2022), amounting to nearly 30 suicides per day in nine years.

Earlier in November, a girl in Hyderabad had climbed a light mast at PM Modi’s rally to register her protest. “The PM should do justice to all communities, castes and religions. The PM is not seeing everyone equally. He should not associate himself with one religion,” she had told media later, adding that the prices of all the essentials had increased and the middle class was unable to make a living. Similarly, Haryana Chief Minister Manoharlal Khattar has faced a series of protests by young individuals and small, politically un-affiliated groups in different parts of the State over the last six months, all on the issue of unemployment.

When the national media was obsessed with mimicry row over alleged humiliation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, amid suspension of 146 MPs from the Parliament, the mass burial of 87 Kuki-Zo victims, who were killed in the ongoing ethnic clashes in Manipur, was completely ignored. Though the number of MPs suspended in this Parliament session for “disorderly and ignoble conduct” is unprecedented, questions are being asked as to why similar action wasn’t taken against BJP MPs such as Pratap Simha, who allegedly facilitated the entry of the two intruders into the Lok Sabha, Ramesh Bidhuri, who abused former BSP leader and LS MP Danish Ali, Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, who has been facing allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by at least six women wrestlers, Ajay Mishra Teni, who made threatening remarks against protesting farmers before Lakhimpur Kheri incident, and Narayan Rane, who made derogatory remarks against fellow MP Arvind Sawant inside Parliament. “Aukat nahi hai inki Pradhan Mantri ji (Prime Minister), Amit Shah ke baare mei bolne ki… agar kuch bhi bola toh tumhari aukat mei nikalunga (he does not have the status to comment on PM Modi, Amit Shah. If you say something, I will show you your place),” Rane, the Union minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises had remarked inside the House.

Conversations among the public, as reported from the places these youngsters belong to, have all underscored sentiments against this show of hubris as expressed by the leaders of the ruling party.

Evidently, the extreme action of December 13 by the youngsters, has triggered  a debate in the grassroots, which the mainstream media seems to be completely unaware of. The political class of the country, belonging to the ruling coalition as well as opposition parties, could do well and function in the larger interests of the nation, if it listens to these conversations on the ground and also find out what has actually stimulated these youngsters to take the path they have chosen.

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