Is Neha Bora, India’s new red star, Modi’s real Gen Z threat?
Firebrand student leader has become face of the youth protest movement taking on Modi's Hindu majoritarian government.
New Delhi, India – As India’s leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, marched with tens of thousands of supporters to the country’s Supreme Court on October 12 to submit a petition seeking the sacking of the nation’s election chief, he rested his hands on the shoulders of two women ahead.
One was his 54-year-old younger sister Priyanka, whom Rahul – two years older – has described as his “best friend” and most trusted lieutenant. The other was a 29-year-old student leader who few knew outside college politics until these past few months: Neha Bora.
After 12 years in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently faced a number of his toughest political challenges, as a Gen Z-led movement first forced him to dump his education minister after a series of examination scandals and is now pressuring him over controversial changes to India’s electoral rolls that have stripped 130 million people of the right to vote.
“How do you claim to be the champions of nationalism if you do not delegitimise the people who are actual inheritors of the radical legacy that got India independence?” Bora said, speaking to Al Jazeera.