Democracy

The WhatsApp uncles and aunties generation that have seen the benefits of the two decades after liberalisation are content with their “settled” lives, their garba in Vietnam and their misguided belief about India’s standing going up in the world because of this government. But the reality confronting the Insta generation is that their future isn’t as rosy and the correcting and disciplining mechanism of the political system…

Governments find such protests much harder to confront because there is no obvious ideological counter-narrative. One can’t simply invoke nationalism or accuse every dissatisfied student of serving foreign interests when the grievance concerns administrative failure. The usual political vocabulary becomes ineffective. More importantly, governments are generally better equipped to deal with identifiable opponents than of…

What makes this moment fundamentally different is that the public is no longer appearing terrified. Despite heavy police deployment, massive surveillance cameras and the use of tear gas and force, the sheer volume of everyday citizens, broke the atmosphere of intimidation. People didn't just step out of their homes. They stepped out and converted individual isolation into a loud, collective voice. By refusing to be divided,…

Bukele has forced Salvadorans to trade civil liberties for a sense of security, a bargain that has only grown starker over his five years as president. But whether this arrangement lasts depends on whether it can evolve into a sustainable model of governance, which, given current economic stagnation and mounting social pressures, appears increasingly unlikely without escalating repression. El Salvador could proceed down a few…