What happened
Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of CPI(ML) Liberation, said India’s voting age should be lowered from 18 to 16.
Bhattacharya linked his demand to reports about RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressing around 2,000 students aged 15 to 19 at a centre in Mumbai.
Bhattacharya criticised the reported event as an attempt to engage Gen Z (young people) through public messaging rather than democratic participation. Bhattacharya alleged that students were being forced into apology videos amid a larger backlash connected with protests.
Bhattacharya also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “invoking patriarchal prejudices” against what Bhattacharya called India’s “misled daughters” (Bhattacharya’s phrasing). Bhattacharya argued that if the Centre and RSS wanted to listen to young people, they should allow youth to express their views through voting.
Background and earlier position
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