When youth rise, power trembles
Anam Istafa
History does not always awaken a nation through revolutions, sometimes it awakens a generation through the courage of those who refuse to remain silent. What began as a youth led protest over examination irregularities and demands for accountability grew into a nationwide mobilization. Thousands of young Indians took to the streets, faced arrests, and brutal police force and continued to press their demands. Eventually Education Minister Dharmendra Pradham resigned but the movement has not stopped at the resignation of education, its latest battle is even more fundamental, “Integrity of the vote itself.” On October 2, hundreds and according to some Indian Media reports more than 10,000 people gathered in Mumbai to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a controversial Special Intensive Revision that removed millions of names from electoral rolls, which critics argue threatens free and fair elections.
Instead of answers, the state responded with barricades and handcuffs, police crackdowns, heavy barricading, internet and transit restrictions and the mass detention of student leaders, lawyers, journalists and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke have further fueled public outrage.
The more important question however is not what happened to one Minister or what is going to happen to Chief Election Commissioner, it is what happened to the relationship between citizens and power. Because when citizens start doubting the process itself, democracy doesn’t collapse with a noise, it erodes in silence. This gap between private conviction and public action is where the real crises lie. A democracy does not sustain itself on elections alone, it sustains itself when ordinary citizens are willing to participate, question and hold power to account.
The protesters sent a simple message; public office is not a shield from public scrutiny and democracy is not merely the ritual of casting a vote every few years, it is also the continuing relationship between the governed and those who govern. And this is where Pakistan’s youth must look inward.
Pakistan has a young population, immense digital connectivity, yet when it comes to sustained civic engagement, institutional accountability and peaceful public pressure the question remains, are we speaking loudly enough?
Perhaps the uncomfortable truth is that we have become accustomed to complaining privately while remaining cautious publicly. We question everything in drawing rooms, whatsapp groups and social media comments, but too often fail to transform the frustration into informed peaceful and constructive civic participation. The lesson from India is therefore not that one country’s youth is somehow superior to another’s, it is that youth can become a force in forming a public opinion when they organize around concrete grievances, demand answers and refuse to accept silence as the only option.
What begins as a local concern can enter the national conversation, challenge established narratives and compel those in positions of authority to respond. The cockroach movement illustrates how organized youth can bring neglected issues into public view, influence the direction of debate, and remind society that silence should never be mistaken for consent.
For a government that repeatedly proclaims to be the world’s largest democracy, the real test lies not in the grandeur of its claims but in its willingness to uphold the principles it professes. A democracy cannot be measured by the size of its electorate alone, it must be judged by how it treats dissent, protects civil liberties and responds to the grievances of its own people. When peaceful voices are met with repression, when citizens are made to pay a price for demanding accountability and when the rights of ordinary people are compromised, the credibility of democratic institutions inevitably comes under scrutiny.
India’s treatment of its civilians therefore raises a question that extends far beyond its borders, what message does a nation send to the world when its democratic image appears increasingly at odds with the experiences of those living under its authority?
A mature democracy must leave room for citizens to question those in power and for governments to answer those questions with evidence rather than simply dismissing dissent. A government may silence its people for a moment, but it cannot silence the truth forever, and no government, however powerful can stand tall before the world if the voices of its own people are forced to whisper.
