The daughters of an Assam minister from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a senior BJP MP from Odisha, and a former BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh are among those whom the BJP may worry the most in the aftermath of the youth-led protests against exam paper leaks.
As the ruling party grappled with mounting pressure last week to remove Dharmendra Pradhan as the Education Minister, one of the factors likely to have compelled it to accept the demand was that the heat had reached closer to home and a section of its own support base backed the protests.
Among those who joined a demonstration in Guwahati on July 23 in support of the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) dharna in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar was Assam Cabinet Minister and AGP leader Keshab Mahanta’s daughter Dibisa. On Saturday, the daughter of BJP’s Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, Archita Sachin Rahar, shared a story on Instagram that appeared to celebrate Pradhan’s resignation. Former Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Vikram Singh’s daughter Yashaswinee Raje Singh has also been critical of the party on social media. All three are Gen Z, the demographic group born roughly between 1997 and 2012.
In videos from the protest, Dibisa, who completed two postgraduate degrees from the UK last year, can be heard raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seeking “justice”. In another video, she can be heard saying, “It is very sad, and I cannot express how bad I feel about the violence that is going on. The students just wanted to do a peaceful protest, which went so violent. There was a lathi-charge, there was tear gas, everything went on, but I want to say that I’m so proud of each and every student who showed up that day and showed their bravery, and they inspired me to come out here.”
Sarma speaks up
While Mahanta, who is busy with flood relief, did not comment on the matter, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma weighed in when a reporter asked him about it after a press conference on Saturday night.
“How can I be answerable for what my children say? My own brother does not agree with anything I say. My children also don’t agree with a lot of things I say … All the reporters here who make reels against the BJP, their parents are all BJP … She has spoken against Modi ji, (and) I am sad about that. If I ever meet her, I will speak to her as well,” Sarma said.
“Don’t be surprised if my son, too, says something wrong tomorrow. My son will be a lawyer in the future and may represent people I don’t like. Once children grow up and become adults, their actions should not be linked with their parents… What she said was wrong, but for that, we will speak to the girl. Why will we harass the father?” Sarma said.
‘Inadvertent’ post, says Sarangi
Aparajita Sarangi, meanwhile, sought to clear the air around her daughter’s Instagram post, saying it was “inadvertent”.
Captioned “Jai Hind!” with a Tricolour emoji, Archita’s story said Pradhan had resigned “amid massive student protests over NEET leak fiasco”. This was followed by another post in which Archita said, “Also, to DP’s PA who is sure to text my mother asking me to delete my previous story (it has happened before) — Don’t bother. I won’t delete. Jai Jagannath! Jai Hind.” The story was later deleted.
Regarding the posts, the BJP MP said, “She (Archita) is a Gen Z and she posted the story along with her friends. When I asked her, she realised it and deleted it.”
“She said it was inadvertently put up. I was in my constituency in Odisha and she was in Delhi,” the MP said.
Sarangi had also put up a post on X on Saturday night on Pradhan’s resignation. “Sri Dharmendra Pradhan ji has tendered his resignation today. Resigning after owning moral responsibility calls for a lot of courage. I stand by him in this very difficult time. I wish for him the best for the days to come. May Lord Jagannath shower His blessings upon him,” she wrote.
The other critical voice
Yashaswinee Raje Singh’s father, Vikram Singh, is a two-time MLA from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh and lost the 2022 Assembly elections to the Samajwadi Party. A local BJP leader confirmed that Singh remains an active BJP leader.
When The Indian Express reached out to him, Vikram Singh refused to comment on his daughter’s social media posts critical of the government and the BJP leadership on the issue of student protests.
Yashaswinee — her X bio description reads “not neutral. not silenced”, and says she completed her MSc degree from the London School of Economics — has shared several posts of the CJP over the last few weeks and reposted some X posts criticising the Centre over the paper leaks and the crackdown on the protesters in Delhi on July 20. On Saturday, she wrote on X that “if there’s one thing we know for certain” it is that the PM and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would be “at their most vindictive after this public setback, symbolic resignation notwithstanding”.
The student protests appear to have unsettled the BJP, unlike the 2019 protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the 2020-’21 farmers’ movement, because it drew heavily from the party’s own social base.
“That is politically more dangerous than protest by declared opponents. The government can more easily dismiss an agitation as partisan when it comes from groups it already treats as ideological adversaries. But when students and young people — and these are middle and lower middle class students — who are otherwise inside or near the BJP’s core ecosystem begin to mobilise, the government cannot simply externalise the dissent,” a BJP leader said. This made the government confront the unsettling possibility that the impatience with it now extended beyond the usual Opposition belt.— With inputs from Deeptiman Tiwary
