Introduction

Feelings of frustration and anger are finally getting unleashed. Years of pent-up feelings of helplessness and ignorance are finally getting out. A chance of getting heard, which the youth has taken full advantage of.

The trigger for this awareness and the formation of “Cockroach Janta Party”, commonly referred to as the CJP, was the oral remarks of the Chief Justice of India(CJI), Justice Surya Kant.

The CJI’s remarks, although were clarified later,  were meant for a specific context. They were meant for people with fake degrees, defending other people in the court of law, in black robes. He intended to target the false degree holders of the legal system. Any influential personality would never take the risk of targeting the majority of the population of a country. Although this misunderstanding, unlike others, led to something good and beneficial to the whole society. It ignited the spirits of youth and led to a wave of revolution.

Nevertheless, this article tries to highlight the stark and actual resemblance of youth to pests. It sounds confusing, but let’s break it out.

Comparison with pests

Pests are organisms that emerge in dirty environments and, in certain contexts, harm human interests by damaging crops, property, or health, but in other contexts may play beneficial ecological roles such as pollination, soil enrichment by decomposition, or food-chain support. Whether they are good or bad depends highly on the role they play. Here, we are deliberately comparing the youth with the pests, who are also coming out of dirty environment and contribute to society, either in a good way or a bad way, depending upon the direction and guidance they are provided.

Pests out of the sewage

Here, pests are the youth coming out of a sewage-like system. Let's see why the system is like sewage for youth in the first place.

If we just take a look at what an average person’s life looks like today, we will get the insights as to how the system is like a sewage. Starting from education, which has just become for namesake, with high college fee structures, rote learning, and no skill development.

Then, after getting into the real world, the person realizes that his or her passions can not fill the empty stomach and needs to get a job to fulfil their dreams. As they enter the market, they get to know that there is a severe lack of opportunities. This leads to unemployment and dependence on others, even for meeting the basic survival needs. Less government opportunities, more competition, mental health crisis, social judgement; taxes and competition in startups; toxic corporate culture, are some of the problems faced by the youth. The dreams of, lets say building one's own house, shattered to pieces, as a result of high costs.

On top of it, the youth is living in the age of social media, highly useful, but often controlling their minds. They are not able to make their own choices and decisions, getting influenced by others, not aware of themselves and do not know where they belong. Trapped in the cycle of consumption and not able to produce their own thoughts and ideas.

This is the kind of sewage the youth is exposed to, lives in, and emerges out of. But whether this pest would clean the environment or pollute it even more depends on the meaning he gives to it.

Sewage because of the pests

These pests are those elements of the society, who were exposed to this sewage and choose to further pollute rather than clean, who are turning or have turned the remaining, natural spring-like water into sewage, following their selfish interests.

Be it lazy and avoidant lawmakers, the corrupt executives, the “ corrupt judiciary” as was written and was later removed from the NCERT textbook, the biased media or the people who leak papers, that shape India’s future for some monetary benefit.

Other than that, the society which was expected to be an example of unity in diversity, is now sadly unraveling in an era of division based on religion and caste, and the politicians leave no opportunity to use it in order to benefit their electoral goals.

Persistent inequality, discrimination, lack of “civic sense”, awareness, and responsibility are some of the filth, present in the society.

Conclusion

People are products of their time. Sewage leads to formation of pests. One pest leads to the formation of another. Now, whether these new pests, the aggrieved party here, are going to clean the environment or pollute it more, depends on the path they choose now.

The formation of the CJP is assumed to be a response to not only the remarks, by CJI , which were later clarified and were not intended for the youth at large, but also a response to something going on for years. The youth is now fed up with the hollow promises, and needs real change. The youth covers the largest portion of the population of India and it is now ignited for all the right reasons and has become more aware. CJP has even reached a following greater than the current parties on social media.

It might be an inspiration from the gen-z protests in Nepal and might lead to the same fate and hence better government. But all that is in future. The least we can expect and want now, is an aware, questioning and criticizing population for real-time development and not just on papers.