The breathtakingly preachy headline –“ Gen Z, Gen Alpha must put nation first: Sitharaman”– in Business Standard (September 16, 2026) demanded attention and scrutiny. The finance minister was sermonising at a convocation ceremony in Chennai on Tuesday (September 15). Could it be the beginning of a serious dialogue between a geriatric ruling establishment and a young generation that is now refusing to abide by the rules of command and obedience put in place since 2014?Admitted that Nirmala Sitharaman, the woman in charge of our nation’s financial well-being, is not the kind of heavy-weight ideologue who sets the party’s “line” in stone, and, it is probably unfair to join issues with her public pronouncements. But, then from an intelligent and combative Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson she has graduated to a place in the inner most council of the Indian State – the Cabinet Committee on Security. Having held the finance portfolio for seven years, she cannot be unfamiliar with the intellectual nuances and the layers of conceit of her leader.As per reports, the honourable finance minister talked down to the young. Nothing surprising. So have the prime minister and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) boss spoken in a similar vein in recent days. What makes Sitharaman’s observations worthy of dissection is that she definitely reflects the ruling clique’s mindset. And, the leitmotif of this new ruling’s class self-appreciation is its proprietorial definition of ‘country’ and ‘national interest.’ And, this insistent assertion of a monopoly to define what the ‘country’ wants or what is our ‘national interest,’ is at the root of all the trouble that began at the Jantar Mantar.“Whether you call yourself Gen Z or Gen Alpha, we are all ready to listen to what you have to say. But you must reflect on what is happening around you, what your role is, and what can be achieved for the country through you,” intoned the finance minister, somewhat patronisingly. For good measure, Sitharaman “advised students to shun arrogance, maintain humility, and approach life’s challenges without a sense of victimhood.”The protest underway at Sansad Marg, New Delhi, July 20, 2026. Photo: PTI/Salman Ali.A Jantar Mantar protester is bound to tell her to get off her high horse. A regime that wears arrogance of power on both of its saffron sleeves is lecturing on arrogance and humility. If Sitharaman were not such a joyful cult follower of Prime Minister Narendra Modi [whose ‘strong political leadership’ she did not forget to serenade], she would have tried to understand sympathetically why a whole generation of educated, unemployed, under-employed men and women are giving in to a sense of ‘victimhood.’ It is this intellectual failure to connect to the pain and frustrations of a generation that defines the ruling regime after 12 years of unrestrained power, and it remains the cause of a breakdown of any conversation in the aftermath of the Jantar Mantar insurgency.Also read: Why the Gen Z Movement Is More Than a Moment – It Directly Challenges the Status QuoSitharaman’s fulminations should suggest that the virus has spread much beyond the narrow confines of the Prime Minister’s Office. On the day Business Standard reported on the finance minister’s homily to the young, The Hindu (September 16, 2026) informed its readers of a National Security Act detainee, Satyam Verma, a 60-plus-old, ‘andolanjivi (a derogatory political term for protester)’ to borrow the prime minister’s denigrating phrase. Verma finds himself in jail, courtesy the Noida police, in the same matter as Akriti Chaudhary [whose detention was quashed by the Allahabad high court with some very harsh – but, very appropriate—words against the concerned district magistrate].What connects Verma’s presumed ‘crime’ and Sitharaman’s sermon is the arrogant assertion of an “elected” government to arrogate to itself the exclusive right to define ‘national interest.’ As per The Hindu report, the police accuse Verma of being an “ideological catalyst” and a Marxist who “inspires the new generation to join the rebel organisations.” What, pray, is a rebel organisation? Who had “inspired” those young men and women who congregated at Jantar Mantar protesting that the rigged, corrupt and inefficient examination system be fixed?Also read: The Young and the Restless: Gen Z Has Sounded the Bugle for ChangeThey had certainly met Sitharaman’s test “to reflect on what is happening around you. And, the agitating workers in Noida were definitely reflecting on the happening around them and had reached a conclusion that they were being underpaid and overworked by a ‘system’ that had been given a license to produce a Viksit Bharat.It must be particularly disconcerting to the ruling clique’s ideological catalysts to discover that they are very many Indians, of all ages and religions, who are refusing to fall in line with Prime Minister Modi’s self-serving notions about ‘country’ and ‘national interest.’ That remains the rub.Sitharaman needs to be reminded that a government has only ‘authority’ that must be exercised in an accountable and prescribed manner. Even an ‘inspiring’ leadership of a Narendra Modi cannot possibility override this constitutional obligation. The ‘authority’ has to be exercised in a demonstratively legitimate manner; and, the citizens are within their rights to point out flaws, failures and faults of any ruling arrangement; and, if need be, express themselves in a protesting genre.A license to raising voice of protest, loud and clear, against an unjust and uncaring exercise of ‘authority’ is inherent in the constitutional scheme of things, with or without Sitharaman’s permission. The republic cannot concede to Sitharaman her conceit.Harish Khare was editor-in-chief of The Tribune.