Accountability? A Narrative from the Student Protests in India

I honestly did not want to talk much about what is happening in our country at the moment, because it seems like no one cares much? Like I know that the people I am surrounded by, the people who follow me on Instagram and the people I follow, are all in support of the students. But then whenever I see reels on my feed, which are, in a sense, not supporting any party, they are not even showing support for the protest as such, they are just showing the reality. The videos show the BTS of what is actually happening at the protest site (which indirectly shows their support for the protest since most of these videos show the police being brutal, and the protesters being non-violent). Under such videos, the people who are still in support of the government and the police personnel, are commenting things, which makes you question whether a certain group of people is brainwashed to such an extext that their critical analyses abilities and skills are completely gone?

One thing I have noticed throughout is that, the people in support of the protest are actually reporting their findings with evidence. ‘Oh the police is being brutal’ *attaches a video*, ‘Oh the women are being harassed and inappropriately touched by the personnel’ *attaches an image*. And the other side? they are just relying on what certain accounts that support their ideology are posting. There are multiple videos of influencers exposing the right wing, exposing how these influencers are being contacted and they are being asked to put posts supporting the government, and they are being paid thousands to lakhs per post.

Where is this money coming from? Is this the money that we pay as taxes and GST on every single product and service? Is this the money that we paid for PM fund care, hoping it helps those in need? Where is the accountability for the thousands of things that we have not yet had the chance of asking for from the government since we have not had a press conference or a dialogue with the government in the last 12 years?

The worst of all is the group of people who are saying things like, ‘Oh paper leaks used to happen before the current party came to power, so why did we not protest then?’…. there is a reason they are not in power anymore. There is a reason we elected the current officials. We wanted a change. Something we were promised.

And if there are still people who are holding a ‘neutral’ stance on this, or do not want to be involved in these conversations… its time you guys educate yourself on this and stand for what is correct. If we do not demand changes right now, we dont know how long this might go on for.

In a political scenario where it is our right to question the government… if we cannot even do that without being beat up, tear gassed, groped, assaulted, harassed… then what has our nation come to? Is this what our forefathers faught for those many years ago?

I hope we think of 20th July, 2026 this Independence day, and all the national holidays to come.