New Delhi, July 28 -- As the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) calls off its month-long agitation in Delhi following the education minister's resignation, a familiar narrative loop comes to a close. Yet, watching the youth demonstrations over examination paper leaks and institutional opacity over the past weeks, one is left with a sense of deja vu.

In the late summer of 1990, as a university student in my early 20s, I watched the streets of the capital ignite during the anti-Mandal Commission protests. What began as scattered discussions in university corridors and 'U-Specials'-buses that transported students to North Campus from various parts of Delhi-quickly spiralled into an unprecedented political storm. Thirty- six years later, the underl...