Gen Z protests spur government change, but structural reforms still needed, says Sripad Bhat - The HinduPublished - August 20, 2026 07:30 pm IST - ShivamoggaWriter and activist B. Sripad Bhat delivering a talk on students protest in Shivamogga on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTThe Gen Z protesters succeeded in forcing the Modi government to act at the operational level, while civil society has the responsibility to draw on the spirit of the youth movement and work out strategies to bring about change at the structural and policy level, said B. Sripad Bhat, a writer and activist.Delivering a lecture on the recent students’ protest against the NEET-UG paper leak, at a programme organised by Namma Balaga in Shivamogga on Wednesday, Mr. Bhat said forcing the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was replaced by Pralhad Joshi, amounted to a change at the operational level.“What the students achieved was not a small thing. In the process, the youth effectively delegitimised the leadership and system that their parents’ generation had voted into power. However, neither the National Testing Agency nor NEET has been scrapped, which would constitute a structural reform,” he said.Mr. Bhat said civil society must guide the Gen Z protesters by lending them a political vocabulary and a wider social meaning. “The students’ protest was not an ideological movement. It was a response of Gen Z to what was happening in the education sector,” he said.Mr. Bhat recalled that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution, had cautioned that bhakti, or hero-worship, in politics would lead to dictatorship and the erosion of institutions. Dr. Ambedkar had also warned that a good Constitution, poorly implemented, ruins administration, while even a flawed Constitution could work well if those implementing it were sound. Mr. Bhat said elders and civil society must pass on these lessons to the youth now leading the protests and help them understand Ambedkar’s warnings. This, he said, would help turn a generational outburst into lasting political and structural change.Placing the events in historical perspective, Mr. Bhat said India has mainly seen two kinds of movements: social movements, and those led by the middle class. The middle-class-driven agitations of the 1970s against Indira Gandhi, which culminated in the Emergency, the anti-Mandal protests of the 1980s, and the India Against Corruption movement of the last decade, he said, each ultimately strengthened forces that later gained power and worked to weaken democratic institutions.Mr. Bhat urged introspection on why large sections of society still support such a regime, recalling that even during the Emergency, many had justified it on grounds of punctuality and order. Fascism, he said, is not only a State attitude; it finds fertile ground in society itself. He contrasted earlier eras, when professors and teachers often led street struggles, with the present silence of the intellectual class, even on what he called hurried attempts to impose the National Education Policy.Published - August 20, 2026 07:30 pm 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 }