India's Gen Z protest wave slams into a government crackdown

Three months ago, Delhi's Jantar Mantar erupted in cheers when Gen Z protests forced federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign. Now the same movement can barely assemble. Demonstrations last month by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over voting rights were met with sweeping restrictions, and thousands of peaceful protesters were detained.

The ruling BJP denies it is crushing dissent. National spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam told the BBC that the right to protest and free expression is mandated by the constitution, but must be exercised within the law, adding that demonstrations cannot override other citizens' rights just because a handful of people want to protest and be responsible for violence.

CJP leaders have already paid for the summer. Spokesperson Saurav Das and fellow leader Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in Delhi's Tihar jail after being accused of trespassing at Jantar Mantar. The site of their July victory has since been struck off the list of authorised protest venues, a decision being challenged in court. Left-wing students' group Aisa has also faced police action over allegations of defying orders. Das said the crackdown was expected, and that the government has learnt a lot since the summer.

According to Yamini Aiyar, former president of the Centre for Policy Research and a visiting professor at Brown University, the movement's breadth is what rattles the ruling party. She said the protests are not defined by caste, gender or economic class, and that even some of the BJP's upwardly mobile, lower-income base were drawn in. Protesters have also broken a longstanding taboo by openly mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi online. Student protester Sakhi, affiliated with a Delhi University left-wing organisation, called comedy a new language to challenge authority.

There is precedent for the pressure. Farmers were blocked from entering Delhi in 2020 before the government abandoned agricultural reforms after a year of demonstrations. Student activist Umar Khalid has spent more than six years in jail without trial having begun, accused of being a key conspirator in 2019-20 citizenship law clashes that killed 53 people, mostly Muslims. His latest appeal was lodged this month. His partner, Banojyotsna Lahiri, told the BBC they have no regrets, but described a fear that has prevailed, and said they are looking at a dark mesh of empty space because they don't know when the endpoint is. Constitutional lawyer Vrinda Grover, who advises the CJP, said organisers have repeatedly stressed the protests are non-violent and that rights have been whittled down in the name of law and order. Ali Khan of Lloyd Law College warned the process is the punishment, and that can deter protesters.

For some, the cost lands online. Sakhi's viral posts have drawn targeted, transphobic abuse and threats of violence and rape that the BBC says it has seen, and they say some content was removed after millions of views. Under India's information technology laws, the government can order platforms to block content on national security grounds. CJP leaders liken the crackdown to the 1975 Emergency, when Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties and jailed opponents. Dissent hasn't died: tens of thousands gathered in Delhi on 1 November for a permitted rally by the opposition INDIA bloc, led by Congress. Walking out of Tihar on 21 October, Das was smiling. Wait and watch, he said. Time, he added, is on their side.