India: Modi orders fast-track courts for paper leaks amid protests
07/23/2026 July 23, 2026 Protests 'dented' Modi's grip on India: Experts tell DW As youth-led protests mount across India, experts told DW that they may
07/23/2026 July 23, 2026 Protests 'dented' Modi's grip on India: Experts tell DW As youth-led protests mount across India, experts told DW that they may have dented Prime Minister Narendra Modi's grip on India, steadily built over the last 12 years. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has reached the peak of its political power in terms of parliamentary seats, political analyst and author Amit Julka told DW over a call.
"It's ironic that it is at this point that the BJP government, or the broader NDA government, is facing this legitimacy crisis," he said. The protests have changed societal discourse, Julka said. "There was this mythical, transcendental, sort of aura that Modi had built up for himself. There was this era of complete hegemony over public discourse...a lot of consent towards Modi's Government and his style of functioning.
And I think that has gotten dented," Julka said. Indian writer and political analyst Ananya Vajpeyi said that the protests were "definitely embarrassing for the government." "They are definitely on the back foot. I don't think they expected any of this," she told DW, adding that the scale of the protests were due to political miscalculation. That said, it is not apparent if the threat will reach the ballots of India's next national elections in 2029.
According to Julka, that depends on several other factors such as welfare schemes, community bias, local political dynamics and even how the "GenZ protest" shifts narratives at the grassroots level in India.
The BriefWire