Sreejit Sengupto

Spare us the lecture on “regime change is normal in a democracy.” You know exactly what the phrase means when Prashant Bhushan and AISA’s Neha Bora use it while invoking Bangladesh’s Gen Z street movement that toppled a government outside the electoral calendar. That is not “oppose, expose and depose through elections.” That is a deliberate attempt to normalise extra-constitutional pressure, street veto and manufactured unrest. If it is only about elections, why the hurry? Why the Bangladesh template? Why frame protests against the Election Commission as a “fight for regime change”?In a real democracy, governments change when voters decide at the ballot box, not when a handful of activists and opposition leaders decide the system is “dictatorial” the moment they keep losing. You yourself have used the phrase in purely electoral contexts before. The difference is context, and this context reeks of anarchy-shopping. The BJP is not “apoplectic with feigned rage.” We are simply refusing to pretend that “regime change” + Bangladesh reference = routine parliamentary opposition. India is not Bangladesh. Our institutions, our voters and our Constitution will decide the next government in 2029, not street theatrics dressed up as high principle. Do your job in Parliament and on the campaign trail. Stop trying to import instability and then gaslight the country about dictionary definitions.