Gen Z is India's first mindset-based political constituency, says strategist Naresh Arora

India's Gen Z is emerging as a political constituency defined by common mindset rather than caste, religion, or ideology, according to political strategist Naresh Arora. Speaking at a webinar hosted by The Hindu on Sunday, Mr. Arora said the generation that turned out in large numbers during recent protests at Jantar Mantar represents a new kind of political force.

Mr. Arora, who has worked on Congress election campaigns and advised the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by the late Ajit Pawar, said young voters consume information differently and are less loyal to political parties than to specific issues. “Gen Z is the first generation that should be treated as a constituency based on mindset rather than identity,” he said. “They can support you on one issue today and oppose you tomorrow without feeling contradictory.”

According to Mr. Arora, political parties would be making a mistake if they viewed Gen Z merely as first-time voters. “They are the first generation that expects politics to function with the responsiveness of a digital platform,” he explained. This expectation, he argued, stems from their upbringing in a hyper-connected world where services and information are available instantly.

Referring to the mobilisation around the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Mr. Arora said its appeal lay less in the organisation than in what it symbolised. “It became a vessel for accumulated frustration. The paper leak was only the spark,” he said. The CJP, a fringe political party, gained attention during the protests against alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, with young people rallying around the cause.

Mr. Arora argued that the movement resonated because many young Indians view institutional failures as moral questions rather than administrative lapses. “At 20, corruption is not seen as a practical inconvenience. It is seen as a moral failure,” he said. This moral framing, he noted, explains the intensity of the protests and the unwillingness of participants to accept official explanations.

The protests drew strength from being “decentralised and leaderless,” Mr. Arora said, allowing participants to rally around a cause rather than a political organisation. He emphasised that this structure made the movement harder to co-opt or suppress, as no single leader or party could claim ownership of the narrative.

Mr. Arora cautioned both the government and the Opposition against drawing simplistic conclusions from the protests. “The government should not assume this is only about one examination. It is about trust,” he said. He warned that dismissing the protests as isolated incidents would be a misreading of the deeper discontent among the youth.

He also warned the Opposition against treating public anger as an automatic electoral dividend. “Gen Z is testing the entire political class. The party that wins this generation will be the one that convinces young Indians that hard work will once again be rewarded fairly,” he said. This, he added, requires more than election-time promises; it demands systemic change that restores faith in institutions.

The webinar, part of The Hindu's series on emerging political trends, saw Mr. Arora field questions on the implications of Gen Z's political behaviour for India's electoral landscape. He noted that traditional parties, across the spectrum, have yet to fully grasp the shift from identity-based appeals to issue-based engagement.

Observers say that the Gen Z constituency, while not homogeneous, shares a common impatience with inefficiency and a demand for accountability. Whether this translates into sustained political participation or remains episodic remains to be seen, but Mr. Arora's remarks underscore the growing importance of this demographic in shaping India's political future.