India, Aug. 10 -- The youth protests that forced the resignation of the Education Minister marked a genuine political blow to the government. For the first time, public pressure compelled a government that has otherwise projected arrogance and manufactured invincibility to remove one of its own. Worse for the government, the pressure came from the very constituency it had taken for granted - the youth - a group it assumed it had captured through relentless messaging on social media.

The blow did not come in isolation. It came in the very next sitting of Parliament, in which the delimitation bill was decisively defeated. Two blows in two consecutive sittings dealt a significant setback to a government that has spent enormous resources cu...