From Sri Lanka to Bangladesh, Nepal to Albania and France, young people have been taking to the streets, challenging governments and demanding answers about their future. These movements have emerged from different political circumstances, with distinct immediate triggers. Sri Lanka’s 2022 uprising followed an economic collapse marked by shortages of fuel and essential goods, soaring prices and anger over corruption. Bangladesh’s 2024 student movement began against the restoration of quotas in public-sector recruitment before expanding amid unemployment, political exclusion and a violent government crackdown. In Nepal in September 2025, a ban on social media platforms triggered demonstrations fuelled by anger over corruption, nepotism and lack of opportunities. In Albania, protests have focused on corruption and the conduct of political elites, while demonstrations in France have addressed deteriorating public services, education, the cost of living and government policies. The scale, demands and political consequences of these movements differ, but students and young people have been prominent participants.Indian youth at the forefront India’s students and youth have been at the forefront of struggles for people’s causes since the freedom movement. The All India Students’ Federation (AISF), established in 1936, brought students from across the country together in the fight against imperialism. AISF activists such as Kanaklata Barua and Hemu Kalani laid down their lives for the country’s freedom. The freedom struggle thus established a lasting tradition of students and youth participating in struggles for people’s causes. They stood alongside peasants, workers, women and other sections of society whose voices were ignored and rights denied. They were not merely participants in the struggles of their time but future leaders who helped shape the country’s political life. The Left took the lead in student mobilisation because it upheld a strong tradition of debate, discussion and political education, encouraging students to explore ideas and question authority. Many former student leaders went on to serve as prime ministers and chief ministers. The connection between student struggles and political mobilisation on the streets is firmly established in India’s history. There is nothing foreign or conspiratorial about young people organising against injustice.India has witnessed two major student and youth mobilisations in recent months. The first was against the NEET paper leak demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The second is the ongoing protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over mass deletions from electoral rolls through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Some overenthusiastic members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party (RSS-BJP) ecosystem, obviously trying to cover up for 12 years of governance failures, have sought to invent a mysterious foreign connection between youth protests in India and youth unrest elsewhere. Their conspiracy theories are a convenient way to avoid answering uncomfortable questions. However, they must answer, was the NEET paper leak real or not? Were the concerns of students and families who invested years of their lives preparing imaginary? Are the 13 crore voter deletions a figment of imagination? Why, instead of engaging with protesting students and youth accepting accountability, the BJP government responded with lathis and barricades, turning the national capital into a fortress?Cascading effects of the BJP’s failuresThe RSS and BJP have failed to read the ground and grossly miscalculated the cascading effects of their failures on students and youth, particularly GenZ and the generations that will follow. Their grievances are no longer specific because the BJP’s failures are general. The government has failed to provide nutrition, quality and affordable education, employment and action against climate change. It has weakened social solidarity through communal polarisation while promoting hyper-nationalism to distract people from material concerns. India is lagging behind in artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing, yet scientific research under the RSS prioritises research into gaumutra. The youth can see that the BJP is jeopardising their future. They face precarious employment, rising costs, shrinking opportunities and an uncertain economic landscape. They see wealth concentrated at the top while the majority struggles to secure a decent life, and they refuse to accept that.The same mobile phones once used by the BJP to circulate falsehoods through WhatsApp have become instruments of political activism, documentation and fact-checking. Young people are exposing contradictions, recording police action and challenging right-wing propaganda. The BJP’s machinery of misinformation cannot control a generation that has learnt to question what it is told. Unable to provide answers, Modi and the BJP have returned to their familiar playbook: malign critics, raise artificial controversies about ‘regime change’ and invoke a shadowy ‘foreign hand’. But students and youth are not asking mysterious questions. They are raising simple questions about their examinations, jobs, voting rights and future. They will continue to demand answers. And on this topic, if foreign control is the subject of discussion, the RSS-controlled right wing has a lot to answer. CIA’s funding to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in the 1960s is a matter of public record. So does the Modi government surrendering our strategic autonomy in front of Donald Trump and the US establishment.Common link between youth unrest across the worldThere is, however, a common link between youth unrest across Asia, Africa and Europe. It is not a conspiratorial group or a mysterious foreign agency. It is the failure of neoliberal capitalism to improve living standards for the majority of the world’s population. Francis Fukuyama’s prophecy of the “end of history” has failed spectacularly. Neoliberal capitalism came with the falsehood of prosperity but it has only concentrated wealth at the top of the pyramid while distributing misery at the bottom. Unemployment, inequality, unaffordable housing, erosion of public services, environmental destruction, unequal access to education and healthcare remain among the world’s most pressing problems. Technological advancements have not translated into general well-being. Those who sustain society’s productive forces are increasingly alienated from the wealth they create. Precarity, lack of opportunity, the breakdown of social solidarity, isolation and environmental degradation are pushing young people towards agitation across the globe. These movements do not all share the same ideology, and their anger can be captured by forces opposed to social progress and economic justice. That makes it essential to engage with their grievances and build alternatives rooted in decent employment, public investment, equality and democratic participation. The answer to discontent is not to suppress young people but to transform the conditions that have brought them onto the streets.Tradition of protest in IndiaComing back to India, the grievances of students and youth are genuine. Our freedom struggle bequeathed a tradition of protest that is inclusive and progressive. Liberation struggles across the world have drawn inspiration from the lives and work of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhagat Singh. It is in that radical tradition, and in the courage to question power, that today’s student and youth movements are located. The RSS-BJP’s project of handing the country over to crony corporates while distracting people through communalism and hyper-nationalism must be challenged. Unemployment cannot be resolved through propaganda. Examination failures cannot be erased through conspiracy theories. Electoral credibility cannot be restored by suppressing protests. A generation’s future cannot be secured by demanding its silence. After 12 years in power, Modi and the BJP must provide answers and accept accountability for their failures. They must address the concerns of students, guarantee fair examinations, protect voting rights, invest in education and research, create employment and defend democratic freedoms. They must stop treating young citizens as enemies and start recognising their demands as questions of governance. The youth are not the problem. The problem is a system that denies them opportunities and a government that refuses to answer for its failures. India’s students and youth have inherited a proud tradition of resistance. They will question, organise and fight for a better future. Modi and the BJP must learn to become accountable. Barricades cannot contain the youth aspirations and wild conspiracy theories cannot answer for pervasive failures.D. Raja is the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Vivek Sharma is a member of National Council, CPI.