Shashi Tharoor Praises India’s Democratic Response to Gen Z Protests

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor praised the way India’s democratic system responded to the demands raised by Gen Z protesters, saying it has demonstrated the Indian democracy’s ability to adapt to the concerns and changing needs of its people.Tharoor also referred to Gen Z movements in India’s neighbouring countries while highlighting the differences in their outcomes.

He said the Centre’s decision to accept the youth’s demand for a minister’s resignation was commendable. “The system may have stepped down a rung, but it did not collapse,” he observed. He said the contrasting outcomes of youth protests in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh reflected the nature of governance and politics in those countries. While governments changed in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, their systems remained intact to some extent. In Pakistan and Myanmar, however, power eventually shifted into the hands of the military.

Tharoor said India’s situation was different from that of its neighbours and that nothing had been turned upside down in the country. Instead, India had corrected its course with remarkable and unexpected speed in response to changing circumstances.He also noted that the issues raised by Gen Z were similar to those that the Congress had previously highlighted for students, but the party had failed to achieve the desired results. Tharoor said the Congress should introspect and ask whether it had failed to understand the pulse of Gen Z.