On December 15, Jamia Millia Islamia was stormed by police, the prime minister responded with a communal dog-whistle, BJP leaders spread fake news to defame anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protestors, and the message went out that such extreme protests had no place in a democracy.
Yet, Narendra Modi’s own website dedicates a page to the Navnirman Movement – in which student protestors brought entire cities to a halt with its ‘extremism’ in 1974 – and Modi’s own role in it.
“The Navnirman Movement was Narendra’s first encounter with mass protest and led to a significant broadening of his worldview on social issues,” the page on narendramodi.in says.
“It also propelled Narendra to the first post of his political career, General Secretary of the Lok Sangharsh Samiti in Gujarat in 1975.”
Read more here.