A youth-led uprising shattered the myth of the prime minister’s invincibility. The crackdown that followed revealed how seriously his government took the threat.
For nearly a decade, Narendra Modi’s political dominance has rested on two assumptions. The first was that he was electorally invincible. The second, perhaps even more consequential, was that India’s youngest voters were politically indifferent. This past week, both assumptions were challenged by an unlikely force: Gen Z.
What began as outrage over examination irregularities and the resignation of the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, evolved into something much larger. It became the first sustained youth-led movement in years that forced India’s most powerful government to concede ground.
This is how the movement played out in the last seven days.
I visited the protests in Delhi and Mumbai. Young men and women, most in their early twenties, had walked barefoot from villages, carrying little more than bananas or peanuts in their bags. They packed themselves into trains and buses, went without food and slept on the roads, determined to make themselves heard.
On the 20th of July, as members of the Cockroach Janta party, AISA and other student outfits marched towards the parliament on the first day of the monsoon session, Delhi police under Narendra Modi unleashed the worst brutality one has seen in recent times.
It used batons laced with nails, pellet guns and tear gas injuring hundreds of student protestors. One student continues to be admitted in the intensive care unit of a Delhi hospital while another runs the risk of losing his eyesight for life. (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/19-year-old-may-lose-vision-in-right-eye-due-to-pellet-injury-says-family/article71254890.ece)
In the northern state of Bihar, police allegedly assaulted women protesters , unleashed water cannons and fired at students using an AK-47 rifle used in serious militant or terror combats. Two students have allegedly been hit by the bullets(https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/bihar-cop-seen-on-camera-firing-at-protesting-students-with-ak-47-suspended-cjp-protests-11826533)
Leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi who sat in protest against police brutality was dragged by the police and arrested.
Over the last 12 years, the Modi government has been above criticism and dissent, with a majority of the mainstream media becoming an extended arm of the government. But this was a GEN Z protest, the protestors became citizen journalists themselves documenting their brutality on viral instagram and twitter posts. By the evening, a majority of the country including Modi’s most ardent supporters took to social media expressing their anger and pain. India’s famous public figures that includes the film industry, cricketers and influencers who rarely take a public position critical of the Modi government came out in solidarity with the protestors.
The streets of the country filled with people draping themselves in national flags and patriotic Indian songs of the 90s. Two famous slogans became the rallying point of the protests “Jab Jab Modi darta hai, Police ko aage karta hai” (Each time Modi is scared, he takes refuge in the police) and Dharmendra Pradhan toh Jhanki hai, Modi Amit Shah baaki hai (Dharmendra pradhan is just the beginning, we want Modi to resign ). There have been rare instances in India where students have publicly criticised Modi but almost every single student on the ground raged against the Prime Minister. Memes of Modi’s cowardice became the material for t-shirts, placards and instagram reels. One of the most striking features of the protests was the students’ unequivocal rejection of the majoritarian politics that has defined much of Modi’s tenure. Their slogans captured that sentiment: “Jab jab Modi darta hai, Hindu-Muslim karta hai” (“Whenever Modi is afraid, he turns to Hindu-Muslim divisions”) and “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, Bharat mein sab bhai bhai” (“Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are all brothers and sisters in India”). When right-wing nationalist groups circulated videos threatening protesters, they were met with a powerful display of solidarity that cut across religious lines, forcing many of those voices onto the defensive. The saffron flags that have come to dominate India’s political landscape gave way to the national tricolor as the defining symbol of the movement. Meanwhile, the government’s allies in much of the mainstream media sought to resurrect familiar narratives about a “foreign hand” and George Soros orchestrating the unrest. But those claims found little traction among a generation that had grown accustomed to the Modi government’s well-worn political playbook.
Fearing a complete revolt, Modi released two midnight messages on instagram in a span of 24 hours addressing the GEN Z, promising it of a solution to their problems. But the GEN Z did not budge. There have been incidents where Modi faced challenges like the farmers protest, the citizenship protests, but none challenged the power and invicibility of Modi. This did.
A screengrab from Modi’s midnight video message to the GEN Z
It was this pressure of losing power and authority that forced Prime Minister Modi to ask his education minister to resign, replacing him with another leader who is synonymous for his association with India’s ultra radical rightwing ideology, the RSS.
But Just when the country started celebrating and victory rallies took place of over India on the 26th of July, authorities began arresting students. .(https://maktoobmedia.com/post?id=116043&slug=400-arrested-as-police-crackdown-over-bihar-bandh-against-neet-paper-leak-continues-photos-of-protesters-released)
Reports emerged on the 27th of July that notices were sent to social media platforms seeking the removal of posts critical of the Prime Minister, including memes and satire that had become emblematic of the movement. (https://thewire.in/government/delhi-police-asks-social-media-platforms-to-remove-posts-targeting-pm-modi-reports)
The outgoing Education Minister, rather than fading quietly from public life, was felicitated in Parliament today (27th July)
“Reprinted from…”Gen Z Forced Modi to Blink. His Government’s Response Shows Why the Fight Isn’t Over.