His government is safe, with strong support from allies, and now, after managing splits in regional parties, is even more secure. He is getting ready to push through his most favoured piece of legislation – the delimitation of constituencies. He gets to travel the world and meet with global leaders for photo ops. The media is in his pocket (as are many other institutions) and doesn’t say a word against him and his government. The Election Commission is working hard to ensure that those against him don’t get to vote.Most of all, the opposition is in disarray. All in all, a happy situation to be in.Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.So why then is Narendra Modi so scared? Why has his government reacted so ferociously to the sight of tens of thousands of young people who gathered at Jantar Mantar and said they would march to parliament. Why was a phalanx of policemen let loose and asked to beat them up brutally?Why did the police physically lift and take Sonam Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike, to the hospital? And then, when Rahul Gandhi joined the protesters, beat him up too?All because they were asking questions – questions of accountability.Modi himself was driven away from parliament in his multi-vehicle cavalcade. But as prime minister he could have easily dispatched one of his senior ministers to meet the youngsters and ask them about their problems.Instead, with such vast numbers of young Indians congregating a small distance away from parliament, he spoke glowingly about youth power in the context of the rocket fired by a company owned by two young men with an average age of 28. Even here, he couldn’t resist making a cheap dig about a ’56-year-old young man’, clearly referring to Rahul Gandhi. But if popularity is concerned, the 56-year-old clearly beats the 56-inch chest, which is looking clearly deflated.The image of pellet guns trained at the students is one that will remain embedded in the minds of Indians for a long time.For all the image-building by his cronies and the media, Modi crumbles in the face of pressure. Two instances in the past are telling. The anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitation, in which women sat protesting round the clock for two months, withstanding the weather, trolling and provocations like ‘Goli maaro gaddaron ko’ by Anurag Thakur, broke up only because of the Covid lockdown. But the operationalisation of the CAA was held back for years.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah and Kiren Rijiju and BJP National President Nitin Nabin leave after the ‘Mangal Milan’ meeting at GMC Balayogi Auditorium, in the Parliament Library Building, in New Delhi, Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Photo: PTIWhen the farmers went on strike against the farm laws for over a year in 2020-21, they were called Khalistanis, the police trained water cannons on them and they were prevented from entering Delhi. Yet, they stayed on. Ultimately Modi announced that the laws would be repealed.The youth protests have just begun. There is no saying how long they will continue and what turn they will take. But it is obvious that there is real anger among youngsters. This is gone far beyond the NEET exams and Wangchuk’s hunger strike, though these issues matter.Had Modi met the representatives of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) right in the beginning and promised to set right the education system and punish the guilty, he would have diffused the anger and perhaps stopped the movement right there. Once Wangchuk and the students from AISA went on a hunger strike and the government remained indifferent, it was too late.Security officials use tear gas during the ongoing protest over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, near Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Photo: PTIHundreds, then thousands and tens of thousands converged on Jantar Mantar in Delhi, near Babasaheb Ambedkar’s samadhi in Mumbai and other places all over India. They came because they were fed up with not just the paper leaks, but the embezzlement of funds in the Ayodhya mandir, with the forced supply to motorists of ethanol-blended petrol, broken bridges, just poor governance all round. And all the while the government just shrugged off any responsibility the voices of criticism on digital news sites and social media continued..The government failed to notice the signs and Modi remained in his own fantasy world, perhaps planning his next trip to yet another destination. There was no wife-like Calpurnia to warn Caesar about her worrying dreams, no soothsayer to tell him to beware the Ides of March.When faced with the outburst of anger, he had no response. He had no reserves of empathy to draw from, no understanding of the depth of the anger.Protesters gather during a march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Photo: PTIThe BJP’s usual weapons when dealing with dissenters are – look for the Muslim angle, talk about the foreign hand, attack Rahul Gandhi and the Congress and when all fails, respond violently. The first was not applicable, the second sounds feeble and so the third and fourth have been put into action. But it has had no affect. On Wednesday, extra para-military forces have been brought in. Just think — para-military troops to deal with your own young citizens because they have dared raised their voice against the government. It has all the makings of a disaster.And of course Modi is missing. Not a word from him. He thinks he will ride this out, but knows things can turn serious, because now it is not just young voters who could turn against him, but their parents too. That might include his erstwhile bhakts. Also, the BJP-RSS combine has used these tactics against the Congress several times. They have the cadre and the organisation. But this time he is at the receiving end, and it is a crowd that has emerged organically, on its own – that is something he cannot fathom. He has run out of ideas and doesn’t know what to do.Dharmendra Pradhan cannot be asked to resign, and mistakes cannot be admitted, because that is alien to him. And knowing what happened in Nepal and Sri Lanka, he is worried, whatever his bravado in calling in paramillitary. This cohort of the youth are voters too and cannot be alienated. They are now angry and in no mood to relent.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click.