From Our Correspondent
INDORE: The fifth edition of Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s student outreach, Chhatron Ki Goonj, was held on September 19 at a leased ground opposite Regional Park—renamed Bharat Jodo Maidan after permission for Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was refused. What the organisers billed as the largest gathering in the series so far brought thousands of students, coaching aspirants and youth from Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring districts onto an open field to speak about paper leaks, frozen recruitments, vacant classrooms and a shrinking public education budget.
The campaign had already travelled through Kota, Dehradun, Prayagraj and Pune. Indore was meant to be different: a BJP-ruled education hub, a large tribal catchment, and a test of whether student anger over jobs and exams could be turned into a public argument. Congress claimed well over a lakh online registrations. On the ground the crowd was smaller than the registration numbers, but dense enough—and vocal enough—to make the evening about more than a photo-op.
Gandhi framed the meeting as “system versus students.” Students, he said, are curious and ask questions. The system, he alleged, prefers andhbhakts—unquestioning followers. He named what he called six centres of power—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani—and accused them of capturing institutions. He claimed about ten lakh teacher posts remain vacant, that one lakh government schools have been shut (55 per cent of them in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), and that the education share of the Budget has fallen from 4.6 per cent under the UPA in 2014 to about 2.6 per cent now.
The sharper moments came from the floor. Sapna Gurjar of Rajgarh told the stage that thousands who cleared state exams are still waiting because 13 per cent of posts remain frozen after the OBC reservation hike. Teacher aspirants spoke of years of delay and contract appointments. A Dewas student said an FIR followed after he flagged irregularities in the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission. A nursing student said a four-year course begun in 2020 had still not reached its final year. Gandhi offered to join the teacher-aspirants’ protest and met Bhupendra Jaj, father of Delhi University student Arpit Jaj, who died in the Satya Niketan building collapse.
The ruling side answered in familiar language. Posters calling the campaign Jhooth Ki Goonj appeared across the city. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and the BJP dismissed the event as staged and politically sponsored. Police imposed a long list of conditions on crowd control. A stage mimicry of the Prime Minister later drew separate criticism. Those disputes do not cancel the substance students put on record: stalled MPPSC and teacher recruitments, hostel shortages, exam opacity, and the cost of private coaching as public capacity shrinks.
For PNI News readers the political lesson is simpler than the slogans. A generation preparing for government jobs and professional courses is watching vacancies freeze, schools close and degrees stall. Outreach of this kind works because the grievances are real, not because a leader recites them. If the party in power treats every student meeting as theatre, it will hear the echo only at the ballot box. Youth do not need another slogan. They need examinations that are clean, recruitments that conclude, and classrooms that stay open. Until that happens, Chhatron Ki Goonj will keep finding a crowd.
