THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘You had one job’, read one placard, referencing the popular meme. Another said, ‘Enthonn Kanikkane’, mimicking the famed Thiruvananthapuram slang.
The protest organised at Manaveeyam Veedhi on Thursday was serious, creative and brimming with fearless expression, all the things today’s youth, the Gen-Z, are known for.
Proving that ripples of the students’ stir in Delhi had reached the state capital, more than 1,000 people, a majority of them students, gathered at the popular hangout spot in the state capital demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the scrapping of the National Testing Agency, which conducts the NEET-UG entrance test.
The peaceful protest was organised by a group of students, who are not affiliated to any political party or organisation, to express solidarity with their counterparts protesting in Delhi.
“I really wished such a protest took place in Alappuzha where I live. When I came to know about the protest, I travelled all the way from there,” said Vidya V D, a student of Alappuzha SD College. The crowd also had social media content creators, including Babu Ramachandran, Anjana Gopakumar and Hari Sivaram.
As time passed, the number of protesters swelled after members of the Federation of State Employees and Teachers’ Organisation, who were protesting on the same issue on the other end of Manaveeyam Veedhi, joined the students after wrapping up their agitation.
CPI leader and MLA G R Anil, who participated in the protest, said he was happy and proud to take part in such a gathering. Priests from the Mar Thoma Yuva Jana Sakhyam also joined the students as a show of support. Their children dressed up as cockroaches, in support of Cockroach Janata Party, which is spearheading the Delhi protest, and rasied placards.
The organisers had mobilised the crowd via WhatsApp and social media. “We had to form four WhatsApp groups, each with close to 1,000 participants. Some said they may not be able to attend, and our other social media handles did not have much reach. Still, the large crowd that gathered here today reflects the society’s conscience,” Sam Paul, one of the organisers, told TNIE.
