The BJP has a “massive youth following” and outside of that it is the RSS, the national party’s ideological fountainhead, which has the largest number of the “so-called Gen Z”, the buzzword after Delhi’s Jantar Mantar protest, BJP Vice President Ram Madhav told NDTV.
We have a massive youth following in our party which is with the government, with Prime Minister Modi,” Ram Madhav said at NDTV World’s ‘Anviksha’ India-Nepal Dialogue in Kathmandu on Thursday. “I come from the BJP. We have a youth wing called Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. “Outside of BJP, there’s RSS, which is the most powerful youth organisation in the country. The so-called Gen Z is in the largest number in RSS. Demonstrations led by the online Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, which took its name from an insult, spread from New Delhi to cities nationwide, forcing the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The government initially appeared confident it could contain the protests. Opposition parties and sections of civil society rallied behind the protesters, while images of police action circulated widely online. “India is a country with a massive youth population. We are very proud of our youngsters. But they are not just one group who represent the entire youth of our country. Of course any group of youngsters in India, if they have a concern, if they have some issues, can take up with the government. The BJP leader refused to draw an inference between the Gen Z-led movement in Nepal that led to a change of government and the protest in Delhi that led to the Education Minister’s resignation.
But a police crackdown on crowds marching towards Parliament on July 20 backfired, galvanising support for the movement and transforming anger over exam leaks into a broader expression of youth frustration.
They are in very big numbers in Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP),” Madhav said, underlining that Gen Z is not limited to the youth who were seen protesting at Jantar Mantar. The government of the day is always willing to engage with them and that is what happened in Delhi last month,” Ram Madhav said, speaking about the protests.
