Watch | Did 'Uncertainty and the Meaninglessness of Life' Fuel Student Protests?

How should we assess the outcome of the recent student protests? Is there a wider message for the government and the country that they signalled? And how should we view the future of the Cockroach Janata Party and Abhijeet Dipke? These are some of the key issues that Karan Thapar discusses with the Chief Editor of Studies in Indian Politics, Suhas Palshikar, in this episode of the The Interview.

Palshikar argues that the student protests sent out two loud and clear messages to the government as well as the country. The first was about the education system. It has become “boring time-pass” or a “creche for young adults" and needs to be more than just overhauled. It needs to be re-thought through ab initio.

The second message is in a sense deeper. Palshikar argues that the protests and the striking energy behind them “represent the utter meaninglessness of life that confronts (India’s) youth.” Life has become precarious at multiple levels and that uncertainty has created angst, deep concern and a sense of hopelessness. As he puts it “life is precarious, irrespective of whether you belong to low-income groups or the so-called middle class.”

His analysis and understanding of the recent protests is both revealing and disquieting. It is the second because we don’t have credible answers to the message the protesters sent out.