In Focus-Parley | Are traditional parties unable to understand the grammar of Gen Z politics?

Days after India’s youth-led protests forced the resignation of India’s Union Minister of Education, Members of Parliament found themselves speaking in the language of the protestors. For instance, Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde accused the opposition of being “MIA” - missing in action - and feeling the “FOMO”, or the fear of missing out, before eventually becoming “delulu”. However, the Gen Z were in the limelight far before the protests caught steam. Tamil Nadu’s freshly elected Chief Minister, C. Joseph Vijay of the Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), owes his victory, in part, to the Gen Z voters of the State. The debutante party involved its young following in electoral politics, one viral Instagram reel at a time. In response to this, the then-incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a decades-old party with deep footing in the State, posted reels and co-opted Gen Z slang as well, to no avail. Are traditional parties unable to understand the grammar of Gen Z politics? Here we discuss the question. Guests: N Sai Balaji, the political activist associated with CPI(ML) and the All India Students’ Association and Kunal Purohit, journalist and author of H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Popstars Host: Nitika Francis. Producer: Jude Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices