The excellence of one.

On 25 July, "The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has called off its protest, hours after the resignation of India's education minister. Dharmendra Pradhan resigned after weeks of protests over exam paper leaks and testing irregularities." BBC. However, "Returning to Parliament,..just two days after stepping down over the alleged NEET paper leaks controversy, the BJP MP was greeted with chants of 'Dharmendra Pradhan zindabad (live forever)' and a hero's welcome from party colleagues." TOI. Wishing Pradhan eternal life, while our students commit suicide in despair, shows the callous indifference of the so-called representatives of the people (wikipedia) to the anguish of our betrayed children. "An analysis of media reports by India Today's OSINT team traced at least 93 NEET-linked reported student suicides in the last five years, peaking in 2025 with at least 32 deaths. In 2026 so far, at least 14 cases have already been documented." We mourn while they cheer. "Among emerging market peers, India has recorded the second-fastest pace of growth, but also the highest youth unemployment rate, at 16%." Germany and Japan "entered the demographic dividend phase - the economic growth potential that results from a higher share of the working-age population as compared to the dependent population - and delivered nearly 10% compound average growth rate in per capita GDP between 1950 and 2000." "India's strike rate of around 4.8% pales when compared with China (10.8%), Vietnam (10.2%) and South Korea (6.2%)." Mint. Since the resignation of Mr Pradhan, a multitude of self-appointed experts have propounded their own opinions as to why this government, which always responds with force and terror, gave in to a bunch of students. However, Manu Joseph sounds the most plausible when he writes, "Higher education has hinged on a lie. That it can result in a good job." "But, in reality, it was always inequality that helped people secure such jobs." "Higher education was an artificial filter designed to reject millions of people." But "the government has increased the number of elite engineering and management courses, perhaps thinking, oddly, that if there are many engineers, there would be more jobs." The first Indian Institute of Technology was set up in 1956 at Kharagpur in Bengal. IIT Bombay opened in 1958, Madras and Kanpur in 1959 and Delhi in 1961 for a total of five. Today there are 23 IITs. wikipedia. The first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) opened in 1956 in Delhi. Today there are around 25 called AIIMS. wikipedia. Weirdly, our enlightened leaders seem to believe that a name automatically transfers excellence. They do not seem to understand that an erudite faculty, state of the art infrastructure and hard-working, meritorious students create an institution of excellence. After all, there is only one Harvard, one Oxford and, thankfully so far, only one Indian Institute of Science, which is regularly ranked the highest in India. In 2025, "more than 40% of faculty positions across various AIIMS remain vacant, with some institutions reporting faculty vacancy rates exceeding 50% in 2025-26." NDTV. In June 2026, "Around 38% of sanctioned faculty posts are lying vacant across 22 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) according to institution -wise data," which translates to "four out of every 10 teaching positions remaining unfilled". NDTV. As a result, "millions of graduates are both unemployed and unemployable." Building factories creates jobs. Putting names of elite institutes on buildings does not. It was a bluff. Backfired badly.