4 min readOct 10, 2026 06:40 AM IST First published on: Oct 10, 2026 at 06:40 AM ISTI write to you today not as a Member of Parliament nor a professor, but as someone who has spent years observing, listening to, walking alongside, and writing about protests and movements. I am not much of a social media user. However, whenever my students forward me your creative slogans, posters, and memes, I cannot help but marvel at your strength, resolve, and free spirit.While I have seen movements begin with a handful of people and grow into something larger than anyone had imagined, I have also seen deeply courageous struggles lose their energy. In classrooms, we speak of theories, conceptual frameworks, political opportunities and the conditions under which movements emerge. These ideas help us understand a protest from a certain distance, but the experience of protest is something else altogether. For the person who comes to the street, it may be a question of dignity, livelihood, justice, an uncertain future, or an accumulated sense of being unheard. It is often the moment when someone who has endured patiently for a long time finally breaks their silence.AdvertisementTo me, that’s where every protest begins. People come together because they no longer believe that silence is an answer. And they protest because they retain the hope that what appears inevitable can, in fact, be challenged and changed.People from different vocations, classes and social locations have fought against injustice, often with remarkable courage and determination. Yet their struggles too often remain confined to their own islands of resistance. When sanitation workers fight for safety, dignity, and secure employment, gig workers rarely see a reflection of their own precarity. When farmers occupy the streets, industrial workers often remain spectators. When students protest against paper leaks, fee hikes, unemployment or the erosion of educational opportunities, most grownups treat these as someone else’s battles.This fragmentation should concern all of us. We are all connected by larger questions of dignity, equality, opportunity and justice. Recognising these connections is the first step towards building solidarities that extend beyond the immediate boundaries of a movement. Democracy becomes more meaningful when citizens refuse to remain indifferent to one another’s struggles.AdvertisementThere is a palpable mistrust among different groups of young people, whether they are affiliated with political parties, student organisations, or working independently of any formal organisation. I understand where some of this mistrust comes from, as we all come from different backgrounds, experiences, and see the world through different ideological lenses. We will inevitably disagree about the nature of a problem, the methods of resistance, and even the political destination we wish to reach. What worries me is when disagreement turns into suspicion, and suspicion into hostility. This is where movements begin to weaken themselves.you may likeWe must fight patriarchy, casteism, and prejudice tooth and nail; there can be no compromise on matters of principle. But where our differences are merely of degree, in ideas, opinions, or strategies, we must learn to accommodate one another. The question, therefore, is not how we eliminate our differences, but whether we can learn to work with them. In this context, the Constitution provides the most important common ground. Its commitment to liberty, equality, fraternity and social justice offers us a shared vocabulary that transcends party affiliations, ideological boundaries, and social identities.You have every reason to be impatient with injustice. But do not allow that impatience to become indifference or hostility towards one another. The task is not merely to make your own voices heard; It is also to create a society in which no voice can be dismissed simply because it belongs to someone else. The strength of a democratic movement lies not only in the courage with which people resist injustice, but also in their willingness to recognise one another’s struggles as part of a shared pursuit of justice.The writer is an MP (Rajya Sabha), Rashtriya Janata Dal