ANALYSIS | Modi’s predicament: Gen Z pours out onto India’s streets as dissent surges

Despite tens of thousands of security personnel deployed to stop them, youth protesters in India scaled barricades last week , chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with police officers trying to drag them away.

“Long live the revolution!” shouted one young man before police bundled him into a bus.

Street protests in India this year are likely to be higher than at any time in the past decade, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project has said, as dissent mounts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and Gen Z activists pour on to the streets.

Analysts say the youth protests and growing support for the opposition form the worst crisis for Modi since he came to power in 2014, with people under 30 making up nearly one quarter of the country’s 1-billion voters. But his government remains stable, and the next general election is not due until 2029.

“The nation has suddenly found its voice,” said Yogendra Yadav, an anti-government activist who has played a leading part in the demonstrations. “I would not say this is the beginning of the end of the Modi regime, but this definitely is the beginning of a downward spiral.”

The government and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declined comment for this story.

The recent protests in the capital, New Delhi, and elsewhere were focused on demands that Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar resign over a voter roll revision that activists and opposition parties say favours the BJP and has helped it win several recent state elections.

The governing BJP, the government and the Election Commission deny the accusations. The BJP says the party’s wins have come from Modi’s popularity and strong economic growth.

But the demonstrations are also reflecting something larger: growing anger at Modi for failing to deliver jobs to millions of unemployed youth in his 12 years in power despite the surge in headline economic growth.

Other issues have also fed into the anti-establishment mood, including leaks of question papers in key exams for jobs and education, the high number of crimes against women and the rise of billionaire businessmen alleged to have close links to Modi.

Modi has a strongman image, and his government has previously cracked down on pockets of dissent harshly, but that hasn’t fazed the youngsters on the streets.

This generation has been facing the brunt of not having proper education, which leads to not being able to get good opportunities

“The fear in us is gone,” said Ananya Raturi, a 21-year-old Delhi University student who was part of massive protests in the capital on Saturday.

Speaking after she clung to the windscreen wipers of a bus that police were using to detain protesters, Raturi said: “We don’t fear being detained or beaten up by the police. This generation enjoys it.”