There are descent student leaders.

They are not as famous. The vast majority of the student participants are descent too. Just to let you know, the student leaders were all volunteers, whoever stepped up became the leaders. There was no screening or election involved.  It was more structured at the end, but still there was no guarantee of the ability of the student leaders.

The real tragedy is a country of 1 billion people was relying  on a bunch of 20-year olds to find its next direction. When they failed, people started to ridicule  them for things the experienced people couldn't even contemplate.