Different strokes for different folks: Modi government and farmer protest

BJP - like any other political party - has to make an assessment of whether any particular protest has the potential to harm its electoral prospects. It will act only where they seem threatened

While public protests against the Modi government seem to progressively increase in size and intensity, none has so far impacted the electoral wins notched up by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The government has dealt with some protests with alacrity and ignored others.

Since coming to power in 2014 the nation saw farmers’ protests against a proposed amendment to the Land Acquisition Act in 2014-15, protests in universities after Dalit student Rohith Vemula’s suicide in 2015, by veterans demanding one-rank-one-pension again in 2015, a countrywide “Not In My Name” protests of June 2017 against Hindu mobs lynching Muslims on