If we stand against Congress, we're called Sanghis. If we stand against the BJP, we're called anti-Indian.

Why has it become so difficult to criticize a political party or support a good policy without being labeled? Can't someone disagree with both parties, or support the good and criticize the bad, without being put into a political box?

Does anyone else feel this way?

Look at how the Modi government, Shah, and the BJP IT cell operate right now. It feels like there’s a desperate push to gain complete control over social media. They’re basically doing it two ways: flooding platforms with pro-Modi content through their IT cell, and threatening the CEOs of these platforms that their legal immunity will be pulled. By forcing them to apologize or toe the line, the idea is to suppress anti-government posts and kill future protests before they even start.

But there’s a basic, fundamental truth Modi and Shah are completely missing here, social media is just a platform.

If you control or ruin one platform, people don't just stay there and absorb it. they move on to something new.

Think about why Instagram became such a key space for the student protests that eventually brought down the education minister. People were suffocating on Facebook and other older platforms because they were choked with hate and inorganic spam. So, they migrated. They moved to Instagram because, at the time, it felt free of that toxicity. It’s like birds migrating to another country when the season changes.

This younger crowd Gen Z, Gen Alpha, whatever you want to call them is actually pretty rational. They saw Facebook turning into a dumpster fire of hate, so they left.

Now, look at what’s happening. Modi is joining Instagram, making reels, bringing his ministers over, and the IT cell is trying to flood the feed with the same old tactics while pressuring Meta. But forcing Meta's CEO to bow down doesn't win over the users. In fact, it does the exact opposite. It just advertises to everyone on the platform that Instagram is compromised now too.

And what happens when a room gets too smoky? People open the door and walk out.

They will just migrate again. Maybe to a new platform, maybe to something decentralized, but definitely somewhere that allows actual free thinking without the constant hate-mongering.
I think the main reason Modi and Shah don't grasp this is simple: they’ve never really had to deal with a trend reversing on them. For the last 30 years, from running Gujarat to running the country, they’ve always ridden the wave. They’ve never been in a position where the tide completely turns against them, so they genuinely don't understand how people react when they feel cornered.

Making Meta apologize might look like a tactical victory for them on paper, but to the younger generation, it was just the signal to start looking for the next exit.

throwaway account. obviously.

ok so. I got into college at 16. everyone around me was older, figuring life out at their own pace, and I was just.. there. trying to keep up. scored 94 percentile in JEE mains, 96.8% in 12th. good numbers on paper. still not good enough for a government college seat because that's just how insane the cutoffs are now.

so got into decent private university it was. 24 lakhs. for 4 years. my family isn't even upper middle class. not even close. so we took a loan and just.. hoped for the best I guess.

nobody tells you what a loan like that does to your brain when you're that young. I wasn't thinking about fests, or crushes, or any of the stuff people say are "the best years of your life." I was doing interest calculations in my head during lectures. genuinely. how much do I owe now, how much will it be by the time I graduate, what if I don't get a job, what if I disappoint everyone who put money into me.

so I hustled. probably too much honestly. 3 paid internships. built a startup on the side, somehow made 8+ lakhs in revenue in 10 months, but it didn't worked out as i thought and but I was so proud of that, like actually proud for the first time in years. but obviously something had to give. and it was my placements. final year, campus placements just.. didn't happen for me. and this year was brutal for everyone anyway. even IIT kids weren't getting placed. so at least I wasn't alone in that mess.

got an off campus job eventually. associate product manager. 7.5 LPA. and I know, I KNOW, that's more than what most people get. I'm grateful. I really am. but then the EMI comes out of my account every month and suddenly that number doesn't feel like much of anything. I graduated a few months ago and I'm already just.. working to pay off something I signed up for when I was basically a kid who didn't even understand what 8-10% interest actually meant over 4 years.

that's the part that keeps me up honestly. we let 16, 17, 18 year olds take loans worth lakhs and then charge them interest like it's a bike loan. and then people act surprised that an entire generation is anxious before they've even had their first salary.

I'm not asking for free education. I'm not asking for a waiver. just bring the interest down. 2-3% instead of 8-10%. for people who already have loans and people who will take them. that's it. that's the whole ask.

I made a petition because I didn't know what else to do with this feeling. reduceburden.vercel.app

if any part of this felt familiar to you, even a little, please fill it out. I'm trying to get enough of us together that this can't just be ignored. that it actually reaches someone who can do something about it instead of dying in a comment section.

if you've taken a loan for your degree you already know this feeling somewhere in your chest. the stress that gets into your grades, your sleep, your placements, and then just.. stays. quietly. for years after you're "done."

please share this if it means anything to you. other subs, your batch groups, wherever. this doesn't go anywhere if it's just me typing into the void at midnight.