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Gen Z’s Jantar Mantar: The Day Fear Lost and a Minister Resigned

There are moments in a nation’s life when the streets begin to believe that they are not just streets – they are stages. Stages on which history is written not with the ink of power, but with the sweat of the powerless. Last night, Jantar Mantar turned into one such stage. A resignation arrived. Not a resignation handed over in the quiet corridors of Shastri Bhawan, but one that was snatched on the asphalt, under the open sky, by a generation that the powerful had hoped would remain permanently asleep.

Dharmendra Pradhan, the Education Minister of India, had to step down. The protest that had been simmering at Jantar Mantar – organised by the youth who call themselves “Gen Z” of this movement, or more pointedly, Jinji – came to its first great crescendo. The tents were folded, but the country’s young are still swimming in a sea of celebration. It wasn’t just a minister’s chair that was emptied. A carefully constructed architecture of intimidation received its first major crack.

The Night the Minister Fell

The visuals are telling. A little while after the news of the resignation spread, the demonstrators at Jantar Mantar erupted. Hands shot up in the air, fingers shaped into victory signs, the air thick with a joy that can only be understood by those who have been repeatedly beaten and told that they can never win. “Resignation is a very small thing,” someone shouted. In a government that has perfected the art of never offering sacrifice, the acceptance of even a symbolic exit feels monumental. The Modi government, which has treated its own ministers as permanent ornaments, agreed to all three demands put forward by the protesters’ group – calls for a probe into the NEET paper leak scandal, concrete safeguards, and accountability. And then, in a sight rarer than a blue moon, the same government that had labelled these very students as agents of China and Pakistan, sat down with their representatives for a meeting.

Think about that. The regime, which for months had allowed its propaganda machinery to paint these aspiring doctors and engineers as anti-nationals, had to face them across a table. The narrative of sedition, so loosely hurled, collapsed the moment the state was forced to negotiate.

Who is Voldemort?

To understand the symbolic universe of this movement, you must enter the world of the young – a world of Harry Potter. The protesters frequently invoked Voldemort, the dark wizard who wanted to fill people’s brains with magical garbage, to control the world through fear, to become immortal and so terrifying that no one dared to speak his name. In the films, Voldemort is ultimately defeated by a group of children. At Jantar Mantar, a young woman said she had written in her diary, “When Voldemort was defeated by students, what is Dharmendra Pradhan?” The answer echoed through the streets: nothing. The establishment, which had spent years building an aura of invincibility, was reduced to a powerless villain whose name could now be taken lightly.

The comparison is not child’s play. It reveals a deep, damning critique: a government that has sought to control minds, to fill public discourse with mythological falsehoods, to make itself appear eternal and above question, is now being vanquished by the very generation it tried to dumb down.

Two Protests, Two Responses: A Stark Contrast

To feel the full weight of this moment, one must remember the farmers’ agitation. Over a year, under scorching sun and bitter cold, thousands of farmers camped on Delhi’s borders. Over 700 farmers, according to reports, lost their lives. Their leaders were insulted, branded as Khalistani terrorists, and the government steadfastly refused to even call them for a dialogue, let alone meet them with respect. The image of that betrayal still burns in the country’s memory. Now, look at the contrast:

Dimension	Farmers’ Protest (2020-21)	NEET/Jinji Protest (2024)
Duration	Over 12 months	Several weeks
Reported Deaths	700+	None, but repeated police violence
Government’s Stance	Called them terrorists; refused to meet leaders	Initially labelled as foreign agents; later met representatives
Ministerial Resignation	None	Education Minister resigned
Demands Accepted	Partial repeal of laws after immense pressure	All three key demands accepted
Media Portrayal	“Khalistani”, “anti-national”	“Chinese/Pakistani agents” before the U-turn

The table does not lie. A regime that had perfected the art of criminalising dissent suddenly discovered the vocabulary of reconciliation when confronted by a fresh, undamaged cohort of citizens. The difference is not just political; it is generational. The farmers’ resilience was met with contempt; the students’ creative rage was met with a hasty retreat.

The Language of Rebellion

This movement has done more than force a resignation. It has demonstrated a new grammar of protest. The chants that rose from Jantar Mantar – “Jab Modi darta hai, police ko aage karta hai” (When Modi is scared, he pushes the police forward) – are not slogans shaped in old workshops. They are spontaneous, biting, and surgically precise. They expose the regime’s oldest trick: using brute force as the first and only response to fear. And the students faced that brute force too. Delhi Police’s violence was endured, but not silently. It was absorbed, recorded, and turned into a weapon of its own.

The innovation didn’t stop at slogans. The generation that has been dismissed as “Instagram-obsessed” used the same platform to tear down the Prime Minister’s carefully curated image. Once, Narendra Modi addressed the nation at 8 PM with the solemnity of a monarch. Now, he is compelled to release an Instagram reel at midnight, in a corporate, sanitized form, trying to match the rhythm of the young he has neglected. The power shift is unmistakable. The political language that the RSS and BJP believed was their exclusive property has been snatched by a generation that knows how to meme, how to rhyme, how to make a mockery of power in real time. They have shown that the monopoly over political expression, which the Sangh built over 12 years, is a myth.

The Criminalization of Questions

For more than a decade, dissent in India has been systematically criminalised. The students who asked questions during the CAA protests – Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and countless others – still languish in prisons. Opposition voices were reduced to the status of accused. The political domain was colonised, and the right to speak was reserved for those who echo the ruler. Yet, at Jantar Mantar, a new chapter was written. When the government tried its old script – calling the youngsters agents of China and Pakistan – the script didn’t stick. The protesters refused to be caged by the false binary of nationalism. They stood as students, as India’s future, and they reclaimed the right to ask: “What did you do with our examination papers?”

This refusal to be terrorised is not an accident. It is the result of long-gestating anger. The movement of Jinji has reminded the nation that a question is not sedition. A protest is not a conspiracy. And a government that forgets this basic civics lesson will be taught on the streets, again and again.

Godi Media’s Predictable Fall

Every authoritarian structure has its echo chamber. The pro-government media – the Godi media – never tires of being wrong. In this movement, as in every democratic resistance of the past decade, they played their assigned role: they labelled the students as foreign agents, they spread conspiracies about destabilisation, they questioned the “intent” of the youth. And once again, they stand proven wrong, their credibility in tatters. But be warned: they will now try to manufacture a comeback. New stages will be set, new narratives of “anti-national” will be spun. But the young have looked into the eyes of the regime’s propaganda machine and seen only empty husks. The spell is breaking.

The Beginning of the End of Fear

The resignation of a minister is a tiny chapter. What truly happened at Jantar Mantar is the death of a particular kind of fear. The movement’s participants have internalised the lesson of all great struggles: the street belongs to those who walk on it. The government may return. It will certainly come back with newer methods of intimidation, but the genie is out. The young have tasted victory and they know now that the Voldemort of Indian politics is afraid of their voice. They have a name for themselves – Jinji – and they have a name for those who try to silence them. The battle is far from over, but the myth of an unshakeable government has been deflated, in full public view, under the Jantar Mantar sky.

Criticisms

• The overarching fear machinery is perpetuated by the central government.
• Youth protesters were branded as agents of Pakistan and China without evidence.
• Over 700 farmer deaths during the agitation were left unacknowledged by the administration.
• A political language of obedience was aggressively imposed by the RSS-BJP combine over 12 years.
• Dissenters such as Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam are still incarcerated on charges widely seen as politically motivated.
• The Education Minister’s resignation was forced only after intense public pressure, not through institutional accountability.
• The pro-government media consistently manufactured conspiracies to discredit genuine student protests.
• Police violence against peaceful demonstrators was deployed as a standard suppression tactic.
• The Prime Minister’s communication style was reduced to a hollow Instagram reel in a belated attempt to connect with the disenchanted youth.
• The state’s narrative of “anti-national” was weaponised to delegitimize any demand for transparency or justice.

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The Day Gen-Z Brought a Minister to His Knees: A Chronicle of How India's Youth Shattered the Architecture of Fear

Dharmendra Pradhan has resigned. The news landed like a thunderclap at Jantar Mantar. Young men and women, who had been sitting under the scorching July sun for over a month, erupted in celebration. They danced. They sang. They wept. This was their victory — a victory that sceptics had dismissed as impossible. A victory that the lapdog media had mocked, derided, and attributed to every conceivable conspiracy. "We have done it," declared the young protesters. And indeed they had. In their very first agitation, Gen-Z delivered a message to the Modi government that will echo through the corridors of power for years to come: the government's primary duty is to listen to the voice of the people. Not to intimidate. Not to threaten. Not to deploy pellet guns and nail-studded lathis. To listen.

The Anatomy of an Unlikely Victory

Let us be clear about what has transpired here. Since June 20, students had been protesting at Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of the Education Minister over the catastrophic NEET paper leaks. Over a month. Through unbearable heat. Through thirst. Through police baton charges. Through the relentless propaganda machinery of a subservient media that labelled them anti-national, agents of China, agents of Pakistan, even terrorists. The government, intoxicated by the poison of its own propaganda ecosystem, believed it could manufacture public consent against its own children. It believed that the lapdog media's narrative would convince parents that their own sons and daughters were enemies of the nation.

But something remarkable happened. The students did not break. They did not retreat. And the opposition stood with them.

Date / Period	Event	Government Response
June 20, 2024	Protests begin at Jantar Mantar over NEET paper leak	Silence; dismissal of student demands
June 20 - July 25, 2024	Sustained protests; students face lathi charges, pellet guns	Police crackdown; proxy media narratives labelling protesters as anti-national
July 25, 2024	Contractual NTA employees terminated; Education Secretary removed	Scapegoating to protect the Minister; presented as "major action" by lapdog media
July 26, 2024	Dharmendra Pradhan resigns; protests spread to Mumbai, Pune, Allahabad, Patna	Forced capitulation after Patna witnessed stone-pelting and clashes

From June 20 to July 26, the government gave not a single signal that Pradhan would be removed. Every discussion, every attempt at negotiation carried one unified message: take what we are offering, but the Minister will not resign. The government remained obstinate. But the people remained in the field. And the opposition remained with them.

A Resignation Letter That Reveals Everything

And then came the resignation letter — a document that deserves to be read with the scrutiny it invites. Dharmendra Pradhan did not accept his mistake. He did not acknowledge his failure. Then why did he resign? What caused him such pain? The people were fighting on the streets. Students were being beaten by police. Pellet guns were being fired. And what caused the Minister pain? He writes that he resigned so that "anti-national forces" do not take advantage of the situation — so that the nation's unity remains intact, so that no student's future gets entangled in legal complications, so that children can focus on their studies and careers.

This is astonishing. From June 20 to July 26, the Minister suddenly realizes that students' study time is being wasted? That they are being trapped in legal complexities? These very legal complexities were being weaponized to intimidate students. Reports emerged that police were tracing protesters' addresses and visiting their parents. An atmosphere of fear was deliberately manufactured. And yet the youth did not relent. Only then did the thought of resignation cross the Minister's mind.

The Minister should never have written what he wrote. He should not have claimed that he was resigning for national unity, to prevent anti-national forces from gaining advantage. The students sitting on protest at Jantar Mantar love this country no less than you, no less than me, no less than anyone. While the nation was uniting around the demand for his resignation — uniting around the disastrous state of India's education system, uniting around the examination nightmare — Dharmendra Pradhan chose to view this unity through a distorted lens. When you are resigning, you bow your head before the people. You admit that you have been a Minister since 2021 and could not prevent paper leaks in examinations. You accept your failure with humility. You acknowledge that the youth who took to the streets are no less patriotic than anyone else. They came out for themselves and for the future of Indian education.

The Machinery of Suppression

The protests at Jantar Mantar remained peaceful. It was the police who fired first. It was the police who deployed nail-studded lathis. Did Dharmendra Pradhan write a single word in his resignation letter condemning the violence inflicted upon students? Did he express even a moment of distress at the police brutality? Not a word. From June 20 until the day of his resignation, the Delhi Police could not hold a single press conference. The Minister should have resigned bowing to the people. Instead, he inserted the bogey of anti-national forces into his reasoning.

For an entire month, confusion was spread through the lapdog media. The Prime Minister was busy making reels. Contractual employees of the NTA — the very agency conducting examinations — were terminated to save the Education Minister. Students were beaten across the country. Yet Gen-Z did not fear. They remained steadfast at Jantar Mantar and in other parts of the nation. Even on Saturday, the day of the resignation, the crowd at Jantar Mantar was beyond counting. Corporate employees came on their day off, carrying banners declaring: "We are corporate workers." Young protesters were asking their parents, their grandparents: "Why are you not joining the movement?"

The government, until the very end, was operating under the delusion crafted by WhatsApp uncles and housing society walkers — that these protesters were foreign agents, that the government need not bow before them, that listening to them was unnecessary. They were told that if Pradhan resigns, people will demand Modi's resignation too. And why wouldn't they? Such enormous failures are visible everywhere.

The Opposition's Role and the Government's Blunders

Yet the opposition did not demand the Prime Minister's resignation. Rahul Gandhi simply stated that the Prime Minister should apologize for the violence inflicted upon students. For three days, the demand was merely for an apology. But the Prime Minister did not even apologize. Gen-Z held firm on their demand, and in the end, Dharmendra Pradhan had to go.

Now watch closely. The lapdog media will manufacture a new story. They will tell you how the RSS took the initiative, how a message arrived from Nagpur, how the BJP leadership deliberated and decided, how the Prime Minister graciously accepted the resignation. Stories will be spun about how the decision came from the top. But from June 20, the demand was singular: Dharmendra Pradhan must resign. And none of these storybook characters were visible doing anything. Everyone stood firmly behind Pradhan until the very end.

Universities issued orders prohibiting students from joining the protests. Students were threatened using institutional mechanisms. Even after all this, on Saturday, massive crowds descended upon Jantar Mantar. In Mumbai, Pune, and Prayagraj, thousands poured onto the streets demanding the Minister's resignation. In Patna, the situation deteriorated rapidly — clashes between police and protesters, stone-pelting, violence. The situation was spiralling, and finally, the news of Pradhan's resignation arrived.

What Gen-Z Has Achieved

This is an enormous victory. The farmers had achieved a similar victory, but they had to sit on protest for over three hundred days. During that period, more than seven hundred farmers lost their lives. But Gen-Z accomplished something remarkable in just over a month. They did not merely secure the resignation of a Minister. They liberated India from the atmosphere of suppression and fear that the Modi government had constructed over thirteen years. This is not the day of Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. This is the day of freedom from fear. This is the day of freedom from suppression.

Look at what happened in West Bengal after the election results. The Trinamool Congress was being systematically broken. It seemed these people would enter homes and forcibly induct legislators into the BJP. Twenty MLAs of a party were broken overnight, in a single stroke, and made to join a registered unrecognized party in Tripura. The Modi government had embarked decisively on the path of suppression. Every opposition voice, every organization, was being crushed. It had begun to feel that in this country, there was no hope beyond despair.

But Gen-Z changed the very definition of hope. They demonstrated that within hope, there is no space for despair. They compelled Prime Minister Modi to speak. They forced him to make reels at midnight. They made the most powerful government in independent India's history bend.

The Minister's Refusal to Accept Failure

Dharmendra Pradhan wrote about the paper leak: "From the very first day, I took responsibility and never turned my face away from this situation." No student, no citizen of this country can agree with this claim. He wrote: "It was my resolve that we will not allow the examination mafia to destroy the potential of any bright student. We will not allow injustice to any student."

This work should have been done before the NEET examination. When Pradhan was entering Parliament in 2024 to take his oath as a member, the opposition was already raising slogans of "NEET-NEET, Shame-Shame" before him. They reminded him of his challenges even then. But the Minister perhaps did not consider it necessary to remember. He should have accepted the paper leak in the NEET examination as his failure. His resignation could have served as a balm on the wounds of the past month's protests. Instead, his resignation will remain as a thorn — because though he resigned, he refused to acknowledge his failures.

What Pradhan Claimed in His Resignation Letter	The Reality
He took responsibility from day one	For over a month, he refused to engage meaningfully with protesters; scapegoats were sacrificed instead
He resigned for national unity and to prevent anti-national forces from gaining advantage	The nation was uniting around the demand for his resignation; students are among India's finest patriots
He was concerned about students' time being wasted	His government deployed police brutality, legal intimidation, and media propaganda against students for over a month before this concern materialized
He resolved to not let the examination mafia destroy students' potential	Since 2021, paper leaks have occurred repeatedly under his watch; the NTA's contractual employees were terminated to shield him

The Victory Belongs to Many

This is the opposition's victory too. They stood with Gen-Z's demand. They adopted various strategies — sometimes holding dharna outside Prime Minister Modi's residence, with Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav being taken into police custody. Inside Parliament, in the rain, Mallikarjun Kharge stood and raised slogans. Their collective effort bore fruit because the opposition stood with Gen-Z — which is to say, they stood with the times, with the right issue.

The government, meanwhile, stood with the lapdog media, the IT Cell, and the suppressing forces of the police establishment. And they lost. If Pradhan's resignation had come on the first day, people would have understood that this government is accountable, that it accepts responsibility. But to make this government merely feel accountable, the people had to take to the streets across the country.

Rahul Gandhi has stated clearly: if the Minister resigns, it should be from the Cabinet, not merely from the Ministry. There should be no rehabilitation through another portfolio. Discussions are reportedly underway within the BJP about a "solution" — perhaps giving Pradhan another ministry. This is not acceptable to anyone. Dharmendra Pradhan is a symbol — a symbol of what was done to our students, of how they were beaten. He must be removed entirely.

The Cockroach People and the New Symbol

The Cockroach Janta Party — as the protesters styled themselves — gave cow-politics India a new symbol. In a country where the cow's name has been invoked to create mobs that lynch young men from Akhlaq to countless others, the cockroach's name created a people's movement that united everyone and brought them to Jantar Mantar. The Modi government spent thirteen years constructing an architecture of fear, attempting to crush the throat of the press. All of it crumbled today.

Yes, this architecture will raise its head again. Yes, walls of fear will be rebuilt. Yes, traps will be laid once more. But today belongs to this generation. And tomorrow will belong to this generation too.

Gen-Z rejected the government's language. They rejected its ideology. They demonstrated that the word "government" means "servant." Prime Minister Modi had called himself the Pradhan Sevak in 2014, but he forgot. He thought he could break the Trinamool Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress, the Shiv Sena — anyone. He thought he could frighten anyone. What is the public, after all? Breaking opposition spirits, intimidating journalists, strangling the voices of YouTube channels — all these games had been played out. Gen-Z settled all accounts today.

Salute This Generation

Salute this generation. They have returned democracy. They have ended the suffocation. The fear in the air — that fear has been reduced by at least one UI. So breathe freely now. And tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi to think: a democratic country's Prime Minister is being compared to undemocratic, dictatorial metaphors. Is this good? Is this what he entered politics for? At the very least, this is not good for any Prime Minister of India.

Tell those frightening, breaking leaders in his party: if, after thirteen years of intimidation, such a Gen-Z can emerge, then reconsider this policy. Move away from fear. Move away from intimidation. Break the enclosure where the MLAs snatched from Trinamool Congress are being held captive. Return Mamata Banerjee's MLAs to Mamata Banerjee. This political experiment of breaking spirits is the worst possible advertisement for democracy — not just for India, but for the world.

Let the people make the government. Let the people make the opposition. Let the people become the opposition. And let journalists ask questions. If possible, stop running the government through ED and lapdog media. And Prime Minister, stop watching the lapdog media yourself. Stop giving them advertising money. Give that advertising money to the Ladki-Bahin Yojana — at least that money will be of some use. Stop advertising in the lapdog media, or one day, the people of this country will demand an account of that too. It is because of this very lapdog media that you have had to witness this day.

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Criticisms

• The Modi government's architecture of fear and suppression, constructed over thirteen years, is held up as a cautionary tale of democratic erosion.
• A subservient media ecosystem is maintained and financed through government advertising, functioning as a propaganda apparatus rather than a pillar of democracy.
• The Education Minister's resignation letter is noted for its refusal to acknowledge failure, instead invoking the spectre of anti-national forces against India's own students.
• Police brutality — including nail-studded lathis and pellet guns — is deployed against peaceful student protesters without accountability or apology.
• The National Testing Agency's contractual employees are scapegoated and terminated to shield the Minister from responsibility for systemic examination failures.
• Political parties in opposition are systematically broken through defections, with legislators being held in enclosures and forcibly inducted into the ruling party.
• The Prime Minister's silence on police violence against students and his refusal to apologize are noted as failures of leadership and basic humanity.
• Universities are weaponized as instruments of intimidation, issuing orders to prohibit students from peaceful protest.
• The IT Cell and social media machinery are deployed to manufacture consent and label protesting citizens as foreign agents and anti-national elements.
• The government's default response to dissent — denial, intimidation, scapegoating, and only then reluctant concession — is criticized as fundamentally undemocratic.
• The Prime Minister's 2014 self-designation as "Pradhan Sevak" is contrasted with a governance style marked by suppression and unaccountability.
• The expenditure of public funds on government advertising in compliant media outlets is questioned when basic welfare schemes remain underfunded.

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Watch our videos, Prime Minister. Visit RavishKumar.official. Our videos are long — you will not get a one-minute reel out of them. But the sighs of a suppressed people, held down for years, will reach you. You will get an opportunity to become a better leader — an opportunity you have been squandering until now.

Namaskar.

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The Pellet Gun of Denial: How the Government Shoots Its Young Citizens and Then Lies About It

If you have been watching the protests against paper leaks and the collapse of the education system, you would have seen the videos. You would have seen young men and women, hands tied with cloth, surrounded by police, dragged, beaten, and yes, shot at. The Delhi Police insisted no pellet gun was used. But the journalists did their job. And when the truth came out, the government’s only response was to stop talking. Silence is not innocence; it is the most brutal form of guilt.

The Initial Denial and Media’s Persistence

When The Hindu published its first report by Vijaita Singh and Ashna Butani, documenting the use of pellet guns against protesters, the Delhi Police immediately took to Twitter. Under the news article’s link, they wrote a single line: “Pellet gun ka istemaal nahin hua hai” – pellet guns were not used. That was the government’s strategy: deny, dismiss, and hope the story disappears. But it didn’t.

The journalists did not budge. The Hindu stood by its report. Then came more: Scroll’s Ayush Tiwari, Newslaundry’s Avdhesh Kumar, Article 14’s Saba Gurmat, The Wire’s Vipul Kumar, Times of India’s Neha Mishra, India Today’s Anand Singh. Each of them filed stories confirming that the Rapid Action Force (RAF) had indeed fired pellet guns. One report even mentioned that an Outlook journalist was hit by pellets, though his name was withheld. Journalist Mohammed Zubair shared a video of a protester showing pellet marks on his body. Independent journalists like Sachin Gupta also documented the injuries. The police’s lie was now surrounded by a wall of evidence.

Police’s Shifting Narrative: From Denial to “Verification”

Once the newspapers started carrying the stories, the Delhi Police changed its approach. They stopped the outright denial and instead began claiming that they were “verifying” the media reports. This is a classic Modi-government technique: when caught, pretend that you are investigating the truth, but never reveal it. The press note said they were looking into claims that the RAF used pellet guns. But hold on: the RAF is a paramilitary force under the Union Home Ministry. Does the Delhi Police not know what ammunition its own forces carry? Does the CRPF not maintain a strict log of every bullet, every cartridge issued? As journalist Sushant Singh pointed out, every force keeps a full record of which jawans are given what weapons. The RAF unit and the CRPF director general know exactly who fired the pellet guns and on whose orders. This information is not being hidden because it’s unknown. It is being hidden because the Prime Minister’s office wants it hidden.

Rahul Gandhi’s Intervention: Holding the Bullet to the Government’s Face

Then came a moment that the so-called “Godi media” would rather forget. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition, held a press conference and brought with him a young man whose eye had been damaged by a pellet gun. He showed the injury, the visible proof, and directly challenged the government. “Ye hamare future hain ... inki aankh se dikhayi nahi de raha hai,” he said. These are our future. He cannot see from his eye. The government had shot its own youth in the eyes, and still, the Home Minister did not utter a word. No press conference, no explanation, no accountability.

Rahul Gandhi did what the media should have done long ago: he physically dragged the truth into the newsrooms that had ignored it. He held the proof up to the cameras, to journalists, to the empty chairs where the government’s representatives should have been sitting. He forced the conversation back to the pellet guns, back to the brutality, back to the question no one in power wants to answer: who gave the order to fire on students?

The Story of Sahil: One Eye, a Father’s Hope, a Government’s Failure

The Indian Express reported the case of Sahil Lochab, a student of Delhi University’s School of Open Learning. He took part in the protest on July 20, exhausted and frustrated. He had filled the form for the Delhi Police recruitment exam in 2024, but the exam was cancelled because the paper was leaked. He came out to protest, and a pellet fired from a police weapon hit his right eye. He is now being treated at AIIMS. Doctors have confirmed the injury was caused by a pellet gun. His vision is weak, and there is a risk that he may lose his eyesight completely. His father is a deep driver; his family lives in Najafgarh. The state’s ammunition has shattered a poor family’s dreams. All because the government cannot conduct a fair examination.

This is not an isolated incident. Counsel and injuries have been reported from multiple protest sites. The Indian Express, again, stood apart by naming the victim and telling the story. The government remained silent.

The Crumbling Education System and the Shame of NTA

Why are these young people on the streets? Because the education system under this government has become a machine for crushing hope. Look at the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body responsible for conducting major exams like NEET-UG. The data, provided by Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar in the Rajya Sabha, is damning. Out of 39 sanctioned posts, 15 are vacant. The NTA operates with just 24 permanent employees, while 197 are on contract. Let that sink in.

NTA Workforce Details	Number
Sanctioned Posts	39
Vacant Posts	15
Permanent Employees	24
Contractual Employees	197

More than 20 lakh students appear for NEET-UG every year. Their futures are decided by an agency that runs largely on temporary contracts. The same agency that cancelled the UGC-NET exam a day after it was conducted, citing a leak. The same agency that saw the CSIR-UGC NET postponed. The same pattern: leak, cancellation, protest, lathi charge, pellet gun. Students who toiled for years, whose parents spent their savings on coaching and dreams, are told at the last minute that their papers have been leaked, that someone with 60-70 lakh rupees bought the paper, and that their hard work means nothing. And when they dare to ask questions, they are met with bullets.

Dharmendra Pradhan, the Education Minister, is not just a failure; he is a symbol of the collapse. As the protesters demanded in one voice, he has to go. He is the reason a young man’s eye was shot. He is the reason thousands are standing outside in the heat and rain. Yet, he continues to hold his chair, and the Prime Minister continues to protect him. The government that promised ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ has delivered ‘Sabka Paper Leak, Sabka Net Future’.

The Government’s Strategy: Brutal Suppression and a Chilling Warning

The use of pellet guns is not a mistake; it is a message. The state is telling its young citizens: come out, and you will lose your eyes. In Jammu and Kashmir, pellet guns blinded hundreds, partially or fully. Now the same technique is being deployed in the streets of Delhi. Lathis embedded with nails are being used. Water cannons are hurled like weapons. The intention is clear – to break not just bones but the will to resist. This government wants to pre-empt every future protest by showing what happens to those who dissent. Cameras with facial recognition have been installed around protest sites, violating the privacy of thousands who might not even know they are being watched. The message is: we will identify you, we will beat you, and we will blind you if necessary. Do not step out.

The Global Contrast: Shame in the Eyes of the World

While Indian students and people of Indian origin are raising their voices from Sydney to Vancouver, standing in solidarity with the protestors back home, the Delhi government responds with force. The picture from Sydney shows peaceful protesters holding banners. Here in Delhi, the picture shows bloodied eyes. The world is watching. The government hides behind “verification” and continues to stonewall any genuine inquiry. This is not just a law-and-order problem; it is a moral collapse of the state. When a government shoots its own unarmed youth, it forfeits every claim to legitimacy.

The Missing Accountability: Who Will Answer?

The Home Minister, Amit Shah, has not held a single press conference. The Police Commissioner has not faced the media. No FIR has been filed against the policemen who fired the pellets. No compensation has been announced for the injured. No apology has been issued. The institutions that are supposed to protect us have become opaque walls of denial. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, whose signature style is to never directly answer a difficult question, has perfected the art of silence. But silence is complicity. The media, especially the so-called “Godi channels,” have largely ignored the story, choosing to amplify distractions instead of asking the difficult questions: why were pellet guns used? Who gave the order? What will happen to Sahil’s eye? What will happen to the thousands of other victims?

The truth is simple: the Modi government has waged a war on its own children. It has failed to provide fair examinations, failed to stop rampant leaks, and then failed to tolerate the protest that naturally followed. The pellet gun is not a tool of law enforcement; it is a tool of political repression. The government must stop lying. The nation demands answers. But in this regime, answers are a luxury the people can no longer afford.

Criticisms

• The Modi government is condemned for deploying pellet guns against unarmed student protesters in Delhi.
• The Delhi Police are criticized for repeatedly denying the use of pellet guns despite overwhelming video and medical evidence.
• The Union Home Ministry is faulted for failing to order an independent inquiry into the violence against students.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is blamed for maintaining a systematic culture of silence and denial that shields perpetrators of state violence.
• Home Minister Amit Shah is held accountable for the absence of a press conference or any public statement on the injuries inflicted on protesters.
• Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is denounced as a symbol of the collapsed examination system and for presiding over repeated paper leaks that drove students to protest.
• The National Testing Agency (NTA) is exposed as a dysfunctional body operating with only 24 permanent staff while handling examinations for over 20 lakh aspirants.
• The Rapid Action Force (RAF) is accused of using excessive force, including pellet guns, without clear command accountability.
• The compliant “Godi media” are faulted for ignoring or underreporting the pellet gun violence and failing to ask direct questions of the government.
• The government’s record-keeping systems are implicated in a deliberate cover-up, as ammunition logs are withheld to obscure who ordered the shooting.
• Facial recognition surveillance around protest sites is condemned as a direct attack on citizens’ privacy and a tool to intimidate future demonstrators.
• The BJP-led administration is indicted for converting educational failures into a pretext for brutal physical repression of the youth.

Why Two Incomes Are Making Indian Families Poorer | Ankur Warikoo Hindi

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The Two-Income Trap: Why Earning More Doesn't Mean Saving More

Picture a typical middle-class home from forty years ago. The father worked at a bank, a shop, or a modest job. The mother stayed home. That single salary covered the rent, daily expenses, two children, and even allowed a little saving each month. Now, flash forward to today. In any Indian city, you'll see both parents working. They often have just one child instead of two. Their combined income is double—or more—than what their own parents earned. Yet, they are struggling. Salaries vanish within days of landing in the account. Debts are mounting. Emergency funds are a distant dream, and investments? They hardly exist. And here's the kicker: these are not poor households. They earn two, three, even four lakh rupees a month. Still, the math refuses to add up. How did that happen? How did a nation with rapidly rising dual incomes end up with a shrinking savings rate, skyrocketing household debt, and a generation that's perpetually broke? That's the two-income trap, and it's devouring the Indian middle class from the inside.

The Groundbreaking Research That Spotted the Trap

This isn't just a hunch or an observational rant. The concept was meticulously documented in 2003 by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor (now a U.S. Senator), and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi. Their book The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are (Still) Going Broke shattered the conventional wisdom about bankruptcy. Previously, experts assumed that families going broke simply didn't have enough money. The Warrens studied thousands of bankrupt families in America and uncovered something startling: the highest probability of bankruptcy wasn't among the poorest single-income households, but among dual-income families with two kids.

Even more shocking, when they adjusted for inflation, these two-income families were saving less than the single-income families of the 1970s. The second income wasn't translating into reserves; it was getting swallowed whole by something else. That "something else" is the trap, and it's now playing out with frightening precision in India.

India's Own Two-Income Reality Check

Look at urban India today. A clear demographic shift has occurred over the last 15 years. Female labour participation, while still low nationally, has been steadily rising in cities. Nuclear families with both parents working and one or two kids are the default. On paper, this is the richest generation India has ever produced. A young IT professional can earn in a month what their father earned in an entire year. Common sense says savings should be soaring. The data tells a very different story.

Around 2010, Indian households saved about 7-8% of GDP. Today, that number has fallen to roughly 5.3% (RBI data, 2024). As a percentage, it should have at least remained steady if not increased with rising incomes; instead, it's declined. Meanwhile, household debt has ballooned. The average debt burden, which used to hover around 26% of GDP, has now shot up to 43% of GDP. Unsecured lending—personal loans, credit card dues—has been growing at over 20% year-on-year for several years. The situation got so out of hand that the Reserve Bank of India had to step in and tighten norms, because lenders were charging 40-50% annual interest on unsecured loans, and borrowers were lining up to pay it.

So, combine doubling incomes with savings falling to 5% of GDP, and household debt rising to 43% of GDP. The second income didn't create wealth. It created something else entirely: eligibility.

The Trap in Action: Eligibility, Aspiration, and Bid-Up Prices

In life, and especially in India, a lot of things come with an invisible gate: "You can't enter this club. You can't afford that school. This housing society is beyond your status. Don't even step into that car showroom." The dual-income household suddenly found itself with the key to unlock all those gates. The second income didn't mean extra money for the future; it meant you could now chase the house, the car, the school, the lifestyle that was previously out of reach. And that's exactly what happened.

The problem isn't ambition or desire. The problem is mistaking eligibility for success. People started believing that the goal of life was to reach those heights where they could display every status symbol to society. The pre-school fees—not even formal school, but preparation classes for toddlers where they learn A-B-C and 1-2-3—are charging four, five, six thousand rupees a month. The house that would have been adequate for a single-income family suddenly became unaffordable because everyone now had two incomes, and they all chased the same limited supply of "good" homes, schools, and healthcare. When everybody gets more money, nobody gets rich; things just get costlier. You just experienced the most basic principle of economics: increased demand against a fixed supply drives up prices.

Essential items haven't become drastically more expensive, but the things we truly desire—education, healthcare, a premium lifestyle—have become insanely expensive. And because both parents are working eight to ten hours a day, there's no one at home to pick up the slack. Kids are being raised by nannies, iPads, or full-day boarding schools. It's understandable; parents are desperately trying to earn enough to give their families everything they want. But in the process, they've created a house of cards.

The Fragile Safety Net That Vanished

In the old single-income model, there was a built-in insurance policy. If the breadwinner lost their job, had an accident, or faced any calamity, the other partner could step in—maybe take up a job, maybe cut costs dramatically at home. If a child needed extra tutoring, the mother or father could do it themselves. That insurance is gone. Now, you've set your lifestyle to maximum: you've taken the house EMI, the car EMI, the premium school fees, the club memberships. Everything is cranked up. Then one salary vanishes—a layoff, forced maternity, an illness. You have no second line of defence because both incomes are already committed to the lifestyle.

Worse, you're trapped. You can't leave the job you hate because the EMIs must be paid. The second income that was supposed to give you freedom has become a golden cage. You're a hostage to your own aspirations. This is the two-income trap in its most brutal form: you earn double, but you save nothing, and your vulnerability multiplies.

The Way Out: Live on One, Save the Other

The escape isn't about killing your dreams or settling for a mediocre life. It's about a mental shift. You need to recalibrate your expectations to fit one income. All your fixed commitments—rent or home EMI, school fees, core living expenses—should be manageable within the lower of the two salaries (preferably the primary earner's). The second income becomes your wealth engine. It becomes 100% investment, your safety net, your escape velocity from the rat race.

This requires a hard look at your lifestyle. Maybe you can't live on Golf Course Road in Gurgaon with a monthly rent of two-three lakhs. But you can live on Sona Road or Golf Course Extension, where the facilities are nearly the same and the rent is half. The choice is yours: a smaller circle of wants, managed by one income, while the other income silently builds your future. For ten to fifteen years, if you do this, you step out of the trap forever. Your second salary will deliver your dreams—just a little later, but with far more security and far less stress.

A Personal Walkthrough of the One-Income Principle

I'll share my own numbers, not to boast but to show the concept in action. My wife Ruchi and I together earn about 1.25 crore a year. She earns 75 lakhs, I earn 50 lakhs. Now, my 50 lakhs—after taxes, roughly 3.5 lakhs a month in hand—runs the entire household. That includes our child's school fees, which are significant, the rent for this studio (technically our work rent), and all our living costs. We live in Faridabad, not in a DLF Magnolia or Camellia, even though we could technically afford a 3-4 lakh rent. Our apartment is a beautiful luxury unit, but the rent is only 75,000. It's convenient, our home is right upstairs, it's close to everything important. We have one car, not a fleet. We spend well on good food but don't believe in flashy consumption. The point is, we know that only that 3.5 lakhs per month is available for living. We stick to it.

Ruchi's salary—roughly 6.5 lakhs a month after taxes—is untouchable. By the fifth of each month, when I check her account, there are barely a few thousand rupees left. Everything else is already invested. My bank account also hovers near zero by the end of the month. All surplus is routed into investments on the day the salary arrives. That is the reserve, the insurance, the future we are building. Because of this discipline, we save around 25-30 lakhs a year. If we sustain this for 10-15 years, that pool can easily grow to 5-10 crores, enough to maintain the same lifestyle we have today without needing to work. That's the escape from the rat race. It's not magic. It's a deliberate decision to live on one income and invest the other.

You Can Control Your Commitments, Even If You Can't Control the Market

You can't control real estate prices. You can't dictate school fees. But you can control your commitments and, crucially, your desires. I'm not telling you to throttle your aspirations. I'm telling you to stretch your legs only as far as your one-income blanket allows. Anything beyond that is borrowing from your future peace. The second income is not for upgrades; it's for escape. If you're young, single, or married without kids and you're already doing this—living on a fraction of what you earn and investing the rest—congratulations, you've figured out what most of us still haven't.

Conclusion: Key Takeaways from the Two-Income Trap

• The "two-income trap" identified by Elizabeth Warren in 2003 reveals that dual-income families often end up with higher expenses and less savings than single-income families of the past.
• In India, rising dual-income households have coincided with a falling household savings rate (from ~7-8% of GDP to ~5.3%) and soaring household debt (from 26% to 43% of GDP).
• The second income gets absorbed by lifestyle inflation, particularly in competitive goods like housing, education, and healthcare, whose prices are bid up because everyone has more money to chase them.
• This erodes the family's safety net; with both partners working and all income committed to EMIs, a single job loss or emergency can trigger a financial crisis.
• The solution is to deliberately structure your life so that mandatory expenses fit within one income, treating the second income as a pure investment and emergency reserve.
• Over a decade or more, this approach can build enough wealth to escape the rat race entirely, buying freedom instead of just a fancier cage.
• Citations: Warren, E., & Tyagi, A. W. (2003). The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are (Still) Going Broke. Basic Books. RBI Financial Stability Reports (2023-24) on household savings, debt, and unsecured lending trends.

The math is simple, but the execution demands a mindset shift. Stop letting the second income make you eligible for more debt. Let it make you eligible for freedom.

What are my priorities? (Jul 2026)

My Meditations    « Previously

28 Jul 2026, 5:50 PM

Q: What are my priorities?

# Home Loan is not priority. It's collateralized. 
[PRIORITY: 1 (lowest)]

# Getting mom's and dad's documents corrected 
[PRIORITY: 5 (highest)]

# Voter ID correction and SIR for me in Gurgaon and SIR for mom in Delhi 
[PRIORITY: 4 (second highest)]

# Building retirement corpus
[PRIORITY: 2 (second lowest)]

# PRIORITY 3: Mildly urgent and also mildly important-

## Reading books 
(On retirement, on leadership, on Chanakyaniti)

## Doing personal projects 
(on Link to Blog, Video to Blog, math-eight, AI powered legal assistance)

My Meditations    « Previously

Stepping Into the Storm: Pralhad Joshi Takes Charge of India’s Education Ministry Amid Exam Scandal

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5 Key Takeaways

• Pralhad Joshi was appointed as India's Education Minister after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned over the NEET-UG paper leak scandal.
• Joshi is a five-time MP from Karnataka with a background in business and diverse ministerial experience including renewable energy.
• His prior work on large-scale initiatives like the National Green Hydrogen Mission and PM Surya Ghar Yojana is expected to inform his approach to education reform.
• The immediate priority is to restore trust in the examination system through restructuring the NTA and transitioning NEET to computer-based testing by 2027.
• Joshi must oversee continued implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) while handling his existing portfolios in consumer affairs, food, and renewable energy.

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Indian Politics & Education

Pralhad Joshi Takes Charge of Education Ministry After NEET Scandal Upends Leadership

The five-term MP from Dharwad inherits a ministry in crisis, tasked with restoring faith in India's high-stakes examination system while balancing three other cabinet portfolios.

June 2026 New Delhi 8 min read

In a significant political reset triggered by a national examination scandal, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pralhad Joshi has been handed the additional charge of India's Union Ministry of Education. The appointment, announced hours after the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, places a seasoned minister with a diverse portfolio at the helm of an education system facing its most intense public scrutiny in years.

Joshi, who will continue to oversee the ministries of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and New and Renewable Energy, steps into the role at a moment when restoring trust in the country's high-stakes entrance examinations has become an unavoidable national priority. The weight of expectation is immense, and the path forward is fraught with challenges that will test both his administrative skill and political judgment.

The NEET-UG 2026 Paper Leak: A Crisis of Credibility

The immediate trigger for this leadership change was the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), which serves as the gateway to medical colleges across India, was hit by allegations of a widespread leak that compromised the integrity of the exam. The uproar ignited massive student protests and raised fundamental questions about the security apparatus governing competitive testing.

On Saturday, Dharmendra Pradhan submitted his resignation, stating that he was taking moral responsibility for the breach. The government moved swiftly, entrusting Pralhad Joshi with the Education portfolio to steer the crucial next phase of reforms. The speed of the transition underscored the gravity of the moment and the government's recognition that the education system's credibility could not be left in limbo.

Key Context

The NEET-UG examination is taken by approximately 2.3 million students annually, serving as the sole gateway to undergraduate medical education in India. A breach in its integrity affects not just individual futures but the entire healthcare pipeline of the nation.

From Bijapur to the Union Cabinet: Joshi's Formative Years

Pralhad Joshi's own journey to this moment is rooted in a modest background in Karnataka. He was born on November 27, 1962, in the Bijapur district of the state. His early schooling took place in Hubballi, where he attended the Railway School for his primary education, followed by New English School for his secondary years. For higher education, he enrolled at Shri Kadasiddheshwar Arts College in Hubballi, earning a bachelor's degree in the arts.

Before he entered full-time politics, Joshi was involved in business, an experience that later informed his pragmatic approach to governance. That foundation launched a political career that would make him one of the most recognisable faces of the BJP in Karnataka.

A Remarkable Electoral Streak

That career is defined by remarkable electoral consistency. Pralhad Joshi has been a five-time Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing the Dharwad constituency continuously since 2004. His uninterrupted string of victories from the same seat speaks to a deep-rooted connection with his electorate — a bond forged over two decades of representation.

• 2004Elected to 14th Lok Sabha from Dharwad — first electoral victory
• 2009Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha, consolidating his base
• 2014Won a third term as the BJP swept to power nationally
• 2019 – 2024Served as Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal, and Mines
• 2024 – PresentAssigned portfolios of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and New & Renewable Energy

Within the party and the government, Joshi climbed steadily. From 2019 to 2024, he served as the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal, and Mines — a role that demanded both legislative acumen and an understanding of resource management. After the 2024 general elections, his responsibilities shifted to a trio of ministries that touch the daily lives of hundreds of millions of Indians.

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The Renewable Energy Legacy

It is in the renewable energy portfolio that Joshi has left some of his most visible fingerprints on India's policy landscape. As minister, he oversaw several flagship government programmes designed to reshape the country's energy future — initiatives that share a common thread with the education challenge ahead: ambitious scale, tight timelines, and the need for public trust.

• The National Green Hydrogen Mission — an ambitious initiative to make India a global hub for the production, utilisation, and export of green hydrogen, has advanced under his watch.
• PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana — a scheme aiming to provide free electricity to households through subsidised rooftop solar installations.
• PM-KUSUM Scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan, focusing on solar pumps and grid-connected solar power for farmers.

This experience in handling complex, mission-mode projects of enormous scale is now being redirected toward a sector in crisis. The parallels are hard to miss: both energy transition and examination reform require systemic overhaul, technological upgrading, and the ability to carry a sceptical public along on a journey of change.

Taking the Helm: A Message of Continuity

Upon taking the additional charge of the Education Ministry, Joshi struck a note of service and continuity. He was measured in his remarks, careful to honour his predecessor while signalling resolve.

"I accept this responsibility with a sense of duty and humility. I am thankful to the Prime Minister. In the last four to five years, Dharmendra Pradhan implemented the National Education Policy and several important initiatives. Under the guidance of the Prime Minister, I will work to the best of my ability and fulfill my responsibilities with dedication."

— Pralhad Joshi, on assuming additional charge of the Ministry of Education

The statement was both a tribute to the outgoing minister's efforts and a quiet signal that the course set by the National Education Policy (NEP) would not be abandoned. For educators, administrators, and students watching closely, that assurance of continuity was perhaps the most important takeaway from his first remarks.

The Road Ahead: Rebuilding a Broken System

Joshi assumes control of the ministry at an extraordinarily delicate juncture. The NEET-UG paper leak did not simply trigger a minister's exit; it exposed systemic vulnerabilities in the way India administers entrance examinations that determine the futures of millions of young people. The breach was not an isolated incident but a symptom of deeper structural weaknesses.

In response, the central government has already announced a package of reforms intended to prevent a recurrence. The National Testing Agency (NTA), the autonomous body that conducts NEET and other major exams, is being restructured. Measures to tighten anti-paper leak provisions through legislative and technological means are being put in place. Perhaps most significantly, the government has declared that from 2027 onwards, NEET will transition to a computer-based testing format — a move designed to eliminate many of the physical points of vulnerability that paper-based exams present.

The Reform Agenda

Restructuring the NTA — overhauling governance and operational protocols of the National Testing Agency.
Anti-paper leak legislation — strengthening legal deterrents against examination malpractices.
Computer-based NEET from 2027 — transitioning to a digital format to reduce physical vulnerabilities.
NEP implementation — continuing the rollout of the National Education Policy across all tiers.

For the new education minister, the task list is as clear as it is daunting. He must oversee the implementation of these examination reforms with a level of transparency and efficiency that can rebuild public confidence. He must monitor the continued rollout of the NEP, a sweeping document that aims to overhaul India's educational architecture from foundational literacy to higher education research. He must restore the credibility of the entrance examination system, ensuring that students and parents feel that hard work — not manipulation — determines academic advancement.

All of this comes on top of his existing charges, which include managing the public distribution system for food grains and driving the nation's renewable energy transition. The breadth of his portfolio is staggering, and the coming months will reveal whether even the most experienced administrator can juggle mandates of such magnitude without dropping any.

The appointment of Pralhad Joshi suggests that the government is looking for a steady, experienced administrator who can navigate a storm without capsizing the broader reform agenda. His long parliamentary tenure gives him the political weight to push through changes, while his track record in handling diverse ministries points to a capacity for managing complex interlocking systems.

For the education sector, which touches every family and every region, the coming months will be a litmus test of whether the reforms can move from announcements on paper to lived reality in classrooms and examination halls. As students across India prepare for a transformed testing landscape, the new minister's every move will be watched with intensity — not just by political observers but by a generation hoping that the promise of a fair shot at success will finally be kept.

Published in the public interest. This report has been compiled from verified government sources and official statements.

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