NEW DELHI: Congress MP Manish Tewari said there should be a deep study of the Gen-Z protests that brought down govts in three South Asian countries in the last three years to check if they were organic movements arising out of grievances.Tewari said these movements should be examined for the critical difference between autonomous agitations over grievances, and agitations driven by narratives where grievances may have been weaponised. Though he did not point at any country which could have virtually carried out coups in Asia in the name of youth protests, his remark suggested that suspicions could not be simply brushed off. Starting with Sri Lanka, protests brought down elected govts in Nepal and Bangladesh — all in the Indian neighbourhood.The note of caution came as Tewari spoke about the turbulent contemporary world, from Venezuela to Bangladesh to Greenland to Ukrainian invasion, at the launch of his new book “A World Adrift”. The book was released by former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha at IIC, and the gathering included P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vivek Tankha, Mukul Wasnik, and a host of foreign delegates, among others.As he spoke on raging geopolitical issues, Tewari dismissed the belief that “India has lost Bangladesh” after protests toppled the Sheikh Hasina govt that set in motion developments which have increased the friction between India and Bangladesh. He said India invested blood and treasure in creating Bangladesh under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, and “that reality is not lost on the people of Bangladesh”. He said the present transition govt in Dhaka is belligerent towards India for inexplicable reasons, but there is an “emotive connect” between the neighbours, and Bangladesh will be back in India’s eminent domain in coming time.Interestingly, Tewari sought more focus on India’s policy making with the neighbours. He reprised a question he had asked in Parliament – “India has a neighbourhood-first policy, but do any of the neighbours have India-first policy?”Exuding optimism in the wake of turbulence stoked by US President Donald Trump’s policies ranging from Venezuela to Greenland, and the threat to the world order, Tewari said nobody believed the world could survive the Covid pandemic but it did. “We will survive the coming three years,” he laughed.
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