The anger at Jantar Mantar had a history: AISA president Neha Bora

Speaking on the success of the pan-India Gen Z protests, Neha Bora said the students felt “proud” after getting education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign.

“The anger at Jantar Mantar was not merely ire over what happened on July 20. This anger has a history that includes the farmers’ protest and the anti-CAA protest,” said Neha Bora, the young national president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), who in July made a splash at the anti-NEET paper leak agitation with her fellow protestors.

Neha Bora during the ‘Dil Se Bol: Mumbai With GenZ’ event at Y.B. Chavan Auditorium in Mumbai on Monday (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

On Monday, the youth leader addressed an AISA-organised event attended by over 800 youngsters at the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre titled ‘Dil Se Bol: Mumbai With Gen Z Rising’. “Maharashtra is where students of FTII registered the first protest against the BJP government; standing here in that Maharashtra is my privilege,” she said.

Harking back to the pent-up rage from various incidents, Bora said, “We have suffered a lot. The anger was from the day when, in 2019, students from Jamia Millia Islamia marched outside in support of citizenship rights, and the security forces responded by making them bleed.”

Speaking on the success of the pan-India Gen Z protests, Neha said the students felt “proud” after getting education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign. However, she added, the task of rebuilding India needed to be done by every generation.

“I appeal to Gen Alpha, Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers… to every generation that exists and every generation that will come in future,” she said. “This task cannot be accomplished by one generation alone. To truly make this country a democratic country again, all of us will have to struggle. So, in the coming years, we must keep alive in our hearts the courage and hope that we feel today. We now have this sense of solidarity that you can try to divide us by caste and religion and do whatever you want, but if someone is fighting alongside us, it doesn’t matter which religion or caste they come from.”

The event was hosted by stand-up comedian Varun Grover in his inimitable style. While addressing the youth, senior actor and activist Shabana Azmi said, “We used to say that today’s youths are selfish, that they don’t care about what is happening in society, and that they never come together or raise their voices. But with the Gen Z protests, this young generation has proved us wrong.”

Azmi further stated that in fact her generation failed to give them enough inspiration or ideals that they could look up to and follow as they moved forward. Sharing her experience at Jantar Mantar, she said, “We forgot the struggles and sacrifices of our freedom fighters and began taking our freedom for granted. Now, when we are finally realising its value and starting to stand up against those who threaten it, we must thank Gen Z for reminding us of the importance of freedom and for having the courage to raise their voices and stand up for it.”

Abish Mathew, an Indian stand-up comedian, performed a song and moderated a panel discussion on language policing. Model and activist Riya Ahir, actor and producer Raghu Ram, and Anish Gawande, LGBTQ+ rights advocate and national spokesperson of the NCP (SP) discussed the unwanted language policing and shared their experiences at the protests.

Puneet Sharma, Hussain Haidry and Aamir Aziz recited their poems during the event while stand-up comedian Shourya Tyagi and filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee also performed and highlighted current issues.