'This is just the start': India's Gen Z protesters force out a minister, but what next?

2 weeks ago 22

Image source, GettyImage caption, Thousands of people turned out for the protests last week in different Indian citiesByAbhik DebReporting fromDelhiIn 12 years of Narendra Modi's rule in India , only one cabinet minister had previously resigned - over allegations of sexual misconduct.So education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation on Saturday, after more than a week of intense street protests, became a defining moment - one many young people celebrated as a rare victory.In the words of 22-year-old Sakhi, a student activist in Delhi, "for the first time, it felt like we can make things happen through protests".Soon after Pradhan quit, social media seized on an old video of a senior Modi minister boasting that "resignations do not happen in our government", reflecting the confidence of the nationwide youth movement that had demanded his exit.Sakhi says they grew up reading textbooks that spoke about the importance of dissent in a democracy, "but I did not see that around me in the Modi years".On Instagram, Sakhi posted photos and videos of police assaults and detentions alongside reels mocking officers standing beside them. Many have been viewed millions of times.Sakhi says th...

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