Are traditional parties unable to understand the grammar of Gen Z politics? - The HinduPublished - August 14, 2026 01:56 am ISTA supporter of Cockroach Janata Party rests on a barricade during the protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on July 23, 2026. | Photo Credit: ReutersDays after India’s youth-led protests forced the resignation of the Union Minister of Education, Members of Parliament found themselves speaking in the language of the protesters. For instance, Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde accused the Opposition of being “MIA” (missing in action) and feeling “FOMO” (the fear of missing out). However, Gen Z were in the limelight far before the protests caught steam. Tamil Nadu’s freshly elected Chief Minister, C. Joseph Vijay of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), owes his victory, in part, to the Gen Z voters of the State. The debutante party involved its young following in electoral politics, one viral Instagram reel at a time. In response to this, the then-incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) co-opted Gen Z slang as well, to no avail. Are traditional parties unable to understand the grammar of Gen Z politics? N. Sai Balaji and Kunal Purohit discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Nitika Francis. Do you think traditional parties are succeeding in connecting with Gen Z?Kunal Purohit: I think it’s very clear now that all traditional political structures have, in some form or the other, failed in conversing with the young. We’ve seen a lot of speaking at the young, a lot of telling them what they should be thinking, what they should be believing in, where their problems lie, and where their solutions lie but not enough of speaking with them and understanding from them what they really feel. So the protests are really a sign of that gaping hole in our political discourse. What you saw in Delhi, what you saw in so many cities and towns of India across the last few weeks, is an explosion due to the absolute lack of conversation. It’s an explosion of the resentment that builds when you shut a room full of people up and tell them that they have no say in what is going to happen to their futures.N. Sai Balaji: Generally it’s expected that when everything else fails, at least people have political parties as representatives that speak about their concerns. I think largely when we look at it, political parties have turned into a reflection of the ideas of the State and their extended organs. Therefore, political parties are unable to understand Gen Z. They are saying, “we feel suffocated, we feel that the jobs that we are in are not dignified, we don’t feel secure in where we are.” Also, this is the generation that has the maximum education compared to any other generation, with lesser opportunities of employment. These issues are not reflected in the language that the political parties are speaking. That is the reason they took it upon themselves to tell everyone that they don’t need anyone else. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) became an umbrella which included everyone who had small grievances about jobs, education, safety, and questions for the government. And within that umbrella, student organisations like AISA, and the other left organisations also fit in. Do you think the CJP movement will coalesce into an actual political party?N. Sai Balaji: Gen Z knows that Instagram is not going to change their fortune, but it is a mode for them to articulate their concerns. The CJP in that way became that forum or that broad umbrella in which everyone who had the same concerns came together. It was something more than issue-based. It was a generation-based articulation. So they saw it as a forum, not as a political party or a political ideology.Kunal Purohit: The CJP has essentially become the lightning rod of sorts for so many people who have their own grievances, largely about the political system, but also their own lives. But the moment stood important, not because the CJP was leading it, but because people suddenly felt that all of the concerns that they have need to be heard. So, what this moment represents really is a chance for an organisation like the CJP to actually create a new political discourse in the country. Can we reimagine the way our democracy functions? Can we reimagine the social contract between power and between people? In my view, the CJP has its task cut out, which is to actually create a more vibrant democracy from this moment. If it emerges as a political force, I think people would welcome it. But if the CJP decides to capitalise on this moment of protest without actually trying to change anything, then I think it would be a loss.So I think this moment represents a lot more. And I would say the CJP would be mistaken if it thinks that the moment only represents the need for a new political establishment. I think this moment calls for a new political language for this country. What is it about the structure of traditional parties that make Gen Z distrustful of them?Kunal Purohit: In the last 13 years, especially under the Modi government, we ended up normalising a lot of things which did not have much precedent in our country. We normalised a Prime Minister delivering hate speeches as part of electoral campaigns. We normalised the constant one-sided way of communication of the Prime Minister and the lack of accountability. But here came a generation which saw that it did not need to be normalised. We shouldn’t normalise fear; we shouldn’t normalise not speaking up. We shouldn’t normalise this lack of conversation and just sit back and let the government do whatever it wants to do, no matter what the issue is, be it jobs, Internet shutdowns, hate speech etc.I think this generation decided that it’s time that changes. I think it can be attributed to the fact that they didn’t know the rules of the game. People who’ve seen this government, have seen it act with impunity against critics, journalists, activists, and political leaders. And we have sort of learnt the rules of the game and started to play by them. But I think Gen Z didn’t know these rules. They’ve only been seeing a life under under this Prime Minister, and they started making fun of him, saying why is he dressing up, why is he laughing in a weird way when he goes to foreign trips, and so on. So they started seeing the humour in a lot of what we had normalised, and I think that is the language that the government doesn’t have, to be able to speak to them about.N. Sai Balaji: For this generation, the idea of culture that existed before Modi and after Modi, is inexplicably different. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started off with a clean slate. They said, in Kangana Ranaut’s words, that Modi gave them a new independence. And so they were in a new nation. And this new India’s language was not secularism, it was hatred.Millennials like us were taught about secularism, liberty, fraternity, brotherhood, and universality. There was also a moral pressure on us to act in such a way. But when this so-called new India came around, the rules of the game were different. The language was hate, the promotion of a particular religion, and a particular style of religion as well. So everything we say is right, everything you say is wrong. And even if you have to laugh, you have to laugh at our jokes, and not at the jokes that you want to laugh at.These protests invoked the ideas of older leaders such as M.K. Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, whose principles became the central organ which tied everything together. And this is a very beautiful thing for a generation, because they are starting from a clean slate. They don’t know what earlier generations said about Ambedkar. They don’t know what early generations said about Bhagat Singh. Gen Z are setting their own new terms for the culture. Is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) agenda of building temples, focusing on religion, and ‘sanskar’ inherently unfriendly to Gen Z or can they also be co-opted into this ideology?Kunal Purohit: I think it’s too early to write the RSS and the Hindu right-wing off when it comes to its appeal among the young. There is a lot of poison that has been fed to them over many years. That poison isn’t going to go away overnight just because we’ve had this protest. Till a few months ago, we were all discussing the emergence of what they call “bhajan clubbing”, which was essentially a tactic by the Hindu right, to be able to appeal to the very young. We’ve seen enough and more young people falling prey to pop propaganda through movies like Dhurandar.The BJP has in its campaign a bouquet of roses of different colours. It goes to the voter and says, pick whatever you like. You like Hindutva, you pick that out. You like muscular nationalism, you pick that out. You like infrastructure development, you pick that out. So, it gives different options to different groups.Listen to the conversationN. Sai Balaji is a researcher and political activist associated with the CPI(ML) and the All India Students’ Association (AISA). Kunal Purohit is a journalist and author of H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Popstars.Published - August 14, 2026 01:56 am ISTSign in to unlock member-only benefits!Access 10 free stories every monthSave stories to read laterAccess to comment on every storySign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single clickGet notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products${ ind + 1 } ${ device }Last active - ${ la }