NEW DELHI: BJP has fended off numerous opposition campaigns built around allegations, contentious laws or policies, and suspected wrongdoings of a senior Union minister or a chief minister since PM Modi took office in 2014 without making any appearance of bowing to pressure. However, where the opposition could not succeed, street protests and the fear that they could have triggered violence have.The resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, a key member of the Cabinet since Modi first took office in 2014, following unebbing protests is a significant political dent to the party, presenting the opposition a rare opening to build on youth anger after suffering electoral setbacks and desertions from ranks.
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Govt hoped to benefit from the optics of activist Sonam Wangchuk breaking his 26-day hunger strike by accepting soup from Union minister J P Nadda and agreeing to the gentle terms built on assurances.With the protests, though, showing no signs of a let-up and Rahul Gandhi stepping up opposition’s stir, BJP chose pragmatism over defiance, more so as it was confronted with Gen Z that did not deal in the old grammar of politics, making its irreverent slogans, memes and skits go viral.Earlier, government had withdrawn farm laws in Nov 2021 following a year-long protest from farmers, while Modi had publicly announced in Dec 2019 that his govt had no plans for a National Register of Citizens to defuse the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.J Akbar, who quit in 2018 after his name surfaced in the #MeToo row, was a junior minister and carried little political heft. As BJP counts its losses, it will have to grapple with the challenge of winning over a generation which, many political observers say, had been showing signs of restiveness over a host of employment-related concerns even before these protests broke out, despite a section supporting the party’s other planks. The view within BJP is that despite the immediate political price it has paid, it has shown its sincerity of purpose by engaging with protesters and conceding to them, belying the charge that it was “arrogant and insensitive
