Delhi Protest Crackdown a “Big Warning” for Modi Government: Analyst

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By TRH Op-Ed Desk

Manish Anand says police use of tear gas and lathi-charge on student protesters exposes a governance disconnect

New Delhi, July 20, 2026 — Scenes from Delhi should serve as a “warning” to the Modi government, political analyst Manish Anand said in a monologue for The Raisina Hills, after police responded with tear gas and a lathi-charge on a student-led march toward Parliament.

Anand said the ruling party’s ecosystem had spent nearly 23 days dismissing the protest — organised under the banner of the “Cockroach Janta Party” — as stage-managed and lacking public backing. That framing, he argued, collapsed once thousands of protesters, including children and their parents, turned out on Monday.

Invoking socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, Anand said democracy’s temperament is measured on the street, and its echo must reach Parliament. “When the street goes quiet, that’s when you should worry,” he said, paraphrasing Lohia’s warning that suppressed anger resurfaces more forcefully.

Trust deficit over exams

Much of the protesters’ anger, Anand said, traces back to education-sector controversies — including a CBSE board exam OMR-scanning row that has left parents wary of the private vendor handling online marking, and what he described as repeated NEET paper leaks since 2014, which he claimed education experts have counted at roughly 89 incidents of leaks in exams nationwide.

He also pointed to rising graduate unemployment despite professional degrees, arguing that economic frustration, not “Hindu-Muslim politics” or television studio debates, is driving people to the streets.

Questions over ministerial accountability

Anand asked why Union minister JP Nadda’s offer for talks came only after more than three weeks of protest, and why no outreach was made earlier. He also questioned why Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan retained his post despite what Anand called failures. He also cited public allegations of an ethanol-related scam that reportedly led to FIRs against complainants rather than an inquiry into the claims.

“A week is a long time in politics”

Closing his remarks, Anand invoked former British PM Harold Wilson’s line that “a week is a long time in politics,” suggesting the government’s winning streak could shift quickly if public feedback continues to go unheard. “Today’s scenes in Delhi are certainly a big warning for the Modi government,” he said.

(Manish Anand, political analyst, in a monologue for The Raisina Hills)