July 20, 2026, is a day that will be remembered for a long time. Not just because of the massive response to the call given by the Cockroach Janta Party to march to Parliament. Not just because of the recorded evidence of police brutality on young, mostly peaceful protestors. But because it has shifted the conversation in India from the one-way communication of the people in power to one where a generation has announced that it will be heard and is demanding a dialogue between equals. 

The demands made by students at Jantar Mantar and elsewhere have not disappeared despite the Modi government acceding to their principal demand for the resignation of the Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. On the contrary, young people continue to articulate their views on social media platforms as they assert that their struggle is far from over. 

For a time after the CJP called off the protests on August 1, it appeared as if the issue was settled. This is because the Modi government tried to do what it is known to do anytime it faces uncomfortable questions: change the narrative.

So instead of addressing the other important demands made by youth, the new narrative became the allegedly foul language used by some of the young people, specifically young women, that targeted the prime minister.

And those attempting to create this diversion almost succeeded. The unfortunate victim of this strategy was a 15-year-old girl, who had FIRs filed against her, and was eventually forced to apologise on video. That did not end her problems. Her mother told the press that they were compelled to relocate because of the continuous harassment, both by police and others visiting their home and through social media.  Her face and name are now known because even media houses, that ought to have known that a minor must be protected, had no compunction in broadcasting her name and photograph.

Read this piece in Newslaundry to get a sense of the extent of such abuse and trolling of the young women who had the courage to speak up during the protests.  One of them, who teaches yoga, told the Newslaundry reporter: “People are constantly targeting me. I have confined myself to my home and have practically stopped stepping out. My life has changed completely. I am a yoga instructor, and I lost many clients after this controversy. It feels as though my career is over.”

The other narrative that dominated was the Modi government’s demand that the head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg apologise to the prime minister for having taken down his video from Instagram. The explanation that it was a technical glitch did not suffice, nor an apology by a senior executive of the company.

But as Apar Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation, wrote on X, “More than an apology, we need a law for social media regulation that is centred in human rights and guards against political control of platforms… The Standing Committee on IT wants Mark Zuckerberg to apologize, but the real apology is owed to the users themselves, not just the government. A 5-hour takedown of one video made headlines, but doxing of protesters, unchecked hate speech, and automated over-censorship of ordinary citizens’ content go unanswered. An apology to power means little without accountability to the people actually affected.”

So, the 15-year-old who is likely to be marked for life, or the young woman who said her career is over, are not considered worthy of an apology from the government that knows well who is behind the harassment, but the dominant narrative is how these young women, and the company that runs the social media platforms, must apologise.

We must also note that although most of the protestors were men, it is the women who have been targeted. The misogyny so deeply ingrained in our political culture, especially over the last decade when powerful politicians, including Modi, have not hesitated to hurl sexist abuses at their opponents, has been on full display since July 20.

Despite the concentrated effort to move the focus away from the demands of the students, the story refuses to die down. Now it is young people in Jharkhand who are being seen and heard as they occupy the streets of the state capital, Ranchi and its biggest stadium, where some of them are on hunger strike as were their counterparts in Delhi, and where similar demands about leaked exam papers and the desperate hunt for jobs can be heard on the ground.

This video of a young woman on the YouTube channel Lallantop is particularly disturbing. She speaks of the many ways in which she has tried to deal with competitive exams, the desperation of trying to succeed, yet despite being encouraged by parents, she concludes, “We don’t have any value, even as much as insects”. Holding a copy of the Constitution in her hand, she says, “Our Constitution says there should be equality. But where is equality?” And then goes on to say, “I don’t want to cry in front of the camera but sometimes I feel I am nothing, I am nothing.” 

Those words should haunt those who make policies that affect people like this young woman, and the dominant media that perpetuates the false narratives of the powerful.

I must point out though, that there is one big difference in the coverage of the protests in Ranchi and those held in the week starting July 20.

Jharkhand is ruled by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), an ally of the Congress Party and a member of the opposition India Alliance. Significantly, this time, major television channels, that had virtually ignored the previous protests, flew reporters, and even prominent anchors to Ranchi to cover these protests. Apparently, when the target is a non-BJP government, it is worth their time and resources to provide coverage.  

Let me leave you with two stories that illustrate that journalism, as it ought to be practised, still exists.

Just before the July 20 march to parliament, there were videos and images of a truck laden with stones and bricks parked close to the site of the protests.  Questions were raised on social media about how the truck appeared at that location shortly before July 20.

A reporter at Newslaundry did what any media organisation could have done.  He traced the registration plate of the truck, clearly visible in the images, and filed this report. It tells us that the truck was involved in an accident on July 16 but that the police could not give a convincing explanation about why it was parked outside the office of the Indian Youth Congress and so close to the site of the protests on July 19, a day before the march to parliament. The story illustrates what journalists are supposed to do: not speculate but investigate.

AltNews is a platform that does precisely that. And in this instance, it has investigated the use of AK-47 guns by the Bihar police against protesters in Siwan.  Questions were raised about this once a photograph showing a policeman with such a gun went viral. There were also reports of people injured by bullets.  But it is this report that establishes that it was not just a couple of bullets fired at people but at least nine that AltNews has managed to verify.

Newspapers like The Hindu and independent digital news platforms have also followed up on the pellet injuries on protestors that the police refused to acknowledge. The case is now being heard in the Supreme Court.

The events since July 20 ought to make those in power, including the powerful in the media, acknowledge the passion, clarity and courage of these young protestors. Instead, what we have seen is either a patronising attitude, talking down to them as if they are children to be scolded, or demonising them by attacking the most vulnerable amongst them, the young women.

This is a formula that will rebound because if you took the time to listen and watch the reels and reports since July 20, you would have understood that this cacophony of dissenting voices will not quieten down easily.

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