Aggressive Victimhood Versus Predictable Protests

The current controversy around the UGC regulations is meant neither to promote social justice and equity nor hurt the interests of the dominant castes. It's meant for the two to be at loggerheads and further consolidate their support behind the BJP-RSS combine

- TRIBHUVAN TIWARI

GIVEN the alacrity with which protests emerged against the regulations for the Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions, 2026, by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on January 13, one can either conclude that upper caste student groups are so well organised that within a day they can hit the streets, or these are manufactured protests by the powers that be.

I would prefer to read and interpret them as orchestrated protests that fit a longstanding strategy and narrative of the BJP-RSS combine. If one comprehends the larger context, one can make better sense than the kind of desperation shown by the Dalit-Bahujan counter-narrative. The predictability of the social justice protests feeds the dominant narrative as much as the aggressive victimhood of the caste Hindu mobilisation on the streets. It's a double-whammy that is entrapping the protest politics in aiding and abetting majoritarian consolidation. Protests cannot afford to be formulaic, otherwise they will be sorted out by ruling classes into a design or a strategy of governance. The power of majoritarian governance lies not only in setting the dominant discourse but also in determining the counter-narratives and the counter-publics. We are living in anomalous political times where the dominant elite think dialectically and the protest politics of the marginalised have become formulaic and mechanical. The social justice and secular-progressive response is already calibrated by the regime in order to pay rich electoral dividends. Cynical pragmatism has colonised optimistic idealism.