Who is Gen Z (Generation Z) ??
The generation born between 1997 and 2012 is referred to as Gen Z. That means they come after Millennials (Gen Y) and before Gen Alpha. When did Narendra Modi assume power as Prime Minister? May 2014. This means that when Modi came to power, the eldest Gen Z was 17 years old, and the youngest was 2 years old. By 2026, the eldest is 29 years old, and the youngest is 14 years old. To put it more clearly, from the age of 17-when a child actually starts paying attention to politics-up to the current age of 29, they have only seen Modi’s governance. They have no personal experience of what happened in this country before that.
Who should be telling them about it?
- Did we ever tell them that from independence in 1947, until Modi came to power in 2014, we had only 7 AIIMS, whereas during Modi’s tenure alone, 15 new AIIMS were sanctioned.
- Do they know that until 2014, there were only 387 medical colleges in the country, and under Modi’s administration that number grew to over 700?
- Have we ever informed that until 2014, the total number of MBBS seats in the country was 51,348; now it is 100,000+.
- PD medical seats increased from 31,185 to 70,000+.
- Before 2014, there were 16 IITs; in a short period, 7 new IITs were started during Modi’s tenure.
- Have we taken time to explain to Gen Z the magic of how the length of national Highways grew from 91,287 kilometres before 2014 to over 146,000 kilometres today?
- Rural roads jumped from 3.81 lakh kilometres to 7.80 lakh kilometres.
- Do you think Gen Z would believe it if we told them that until Modi took office, every time a train passed, human waste was dumped directly onto tracks across the entire country?
- Do you think Gen Z can comprehend that clean, modern, high-quality trains like Vande Bharat were beyond our distant dreams before 2014?
Even if we leave that aside…when the Modi government said it would introduce digital payments in India, the questions asked by P Chindaram-the Finance Minister in previous government-perfectly reflects the state of India back then:
-Where in internet in villages?
-How will a farmer or small vendor make payments digitally?
-If someone goes to rural market to buy a kilo of tomatoes, can they make Rs 7.50 digitally?
-Does that vegetable seller have technology for it? It’s not enough to give a card swipe machine to a shopkeeper in village-doesn’t it require electricity?
-Is there Wi-Fi or an internet connection to run a POS (Point of Sales) machine there?
This is what a former Union Finance Minister asked Modiji with contempt on the floor of the Parliament. PM Modi made all these possible, and India is number one in digital payments across the world.
What’s ore, can you believe that lakhs of people in this country did not have toilets until Modiji came to power? This was nation where a government scheme had to be announced just to build toilets…
-Have we ever explained to Gen Z how fast our country has grown? Would Gen Z pay attention to such statistics?
Now, we also need to tell them what the previous government was like..because Gen Z has never known Rahul Gandhi, his team, or their true faces. That’s the truth. We need to tell them that words like ‘corruption’ and ‘scam’ didn’t mean back then what they hear today… They have never heard about 2G Spectrum Scam (2008)-Rs 1.76 lakh Cr; Coal Scam (2009)-Rs 1.86 lakh Cr; Commonwealth Games Scam (2010)-Rs 70,000 Cr; Augusta Westland Helicopter Scam-Rs 360 Cr; Adarsh Housing scam, National Herald scam, Satyam scam… the list of big and small corruption stories goes on.
Leave all that aside-do you think Gen Z knows that bomb blasts used to happen unsafely even at public street corners between the late 1990s and before Modi took over? The blast list is also endless, where thousands of citizens lost their lives. Who can forget the attack by terrorists in Mumbai during November 2008?
Have we ever told Gen Z that our country once went through such conditions? The India they see as they grow up is today’s India. That is all they know. They haven’t seen Rahul Gandhi, or the rest of those protests for what they were earlier. The fact is that the new generation didn’t know the penance the Modi government undertook to transform today’s India into what it is.
Do you think it’s necessary to protest against a man who dedicated his life to leading the country in every way and turning it into a proud nation among world powers, just to teach him about the future of Indian youth? If anyone thinks so, something is seriously wrong with them! The issue is that Gen Z only sees Modi building the Ram temple and chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.
If we explain what this country was like before and how it grew to this status, they will understand. It is because we haven’t made an effort to explain this that protest-mongers and religious fundamentalists are trying to trap them…What they are hearing is the crying of a frustrated opposition that lost power. Not only ruling party failed to tell them how fraudulent and incompetent those leaders are, but they haven’t even bothered to tell them about their own achievements, like many government schemes for the poor, such as Pradahan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Sukanya Smridhi Yojana, Kanya Sumangala Yojana, free ration, free gas connection, free toilet construction and this list is endless.
Here, the main culprit is the ruling party, which has failed to educate the countrymen and especially Gen Z about their accomplishments, and that is the reason why these opposition party leaders are spreading false propaganda and misleading Gen Z. It is a true wake-up call for the BJP and their allies.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
11th August 2026