Kejriwal accuses Modi govt of silencing Gen Z, urges focus on good governance
Synopsis
Arvind Kejriwal has gone on the offensive against the Modi government, alleging a new law forces platforms to delete anti-government posts within three hours — and tying it directly to the crackdown on student protesters at Jantar Mantar. The AAP chief's simultaneous Meta India complaint sharpens a digital-censorship narrative that could resonate well beyond Opposition circles.
Key Takeaways
Arvind Kejriwal on 7 August accused the Modi government of being 'scared' of India's youth and inventing new ways to silence them.
He claimed a new law compels social media platforms to remove government-critical posts within three hours of a government directive.
Kejriwal linked the Jantar Mantar student protest to ten years of accumulated public frustration.
He directly advised PM Modi : 'Do good work, people will start praising you.' A day earlier, Kejriwal accused Meta India of restricting his account without justification, calling it political capitulation.
The BJP-led Centre has not formally responded to his specific claims about the social media law.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday, 7 August accused the Narendra Modi-led government of being 'scared' of the country's youth and deploying new legal mechanisms to suppress student voices amid an ongoing students' protest movement. Speaking through a video blog, Kejriwal urged Prime Minister Modi to prioritise governance over dissent-suppression.
The New Law Kejriwal Is Flagging
Kejriwal claimed the Centre has enacted a law requiring social media platforms to remove any post, article, or video deemed 'critical or disapproving' of the government within three hours of a government directive. 'If you speak against paper leaks, ethanol blending and corrupt practices of the government, your post will be deleted within hours,' he said, framing the provision as a blanket tool to silence political criticism.
The AAP leader argued the law effectively means citizens cannot publicly criticise the Prime Minister or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government without facing content removal. He described the measure as an escalation in what he characterised as a sustained effort to muzzle young voices.
Jantar Mantar Protest and the Anger Behind It
Kejriwal linked the recent Jantar Mantar demonstration to a decade of accumulated public frustration. He claimed that students — including women — were 'abused, insulted and forced to silence their dissent' during the protest, and warned that such tactics were counterproductive. 'This is not the right approach,' he said.
He characterised the protest as a spontaneous expression of anger that had been building over ten years, adding that heavy-handed responses would only deepen resentment. 'The more you suppress the voice of the country's youth, the more their anger will rise,' he cautioned in a direct address to the government.
Kejriwal's Advice to PM Modi
In what he framed as constructive counsel, Kejriwal told the Prime Minister: 'Instead of scaring the people and crushing their voice, you should do good work, people will start praising you.' The remark was a pointed contrast between governance by delivery and governance by control — a framing AAP has consistently used against the BJP-led Centre.
The Meta India Controversy
The statement comes a day after Kejriwal publicly accused Meta India of restricting his social media account without explanation. In a post, he wrote: 'Don't bow down to our Prime Minister so much. Else he will allow you to run only his own account in India.' The back-to-back incidents — the alleged new law and the Meta restriction — have allowed AAP to build a broader narrative around digital censorship ahead of upcoming political cycles.
The BJP-led Centre has not yet issued a formal response to Kejriwal's specific claims about the new social media law. How the government addresses — or ignores — these allegations will likely shape the next phase of the student protest conversation.
Point of View
A claimed censorship law, and his own Meta account restriction into a single narrative, AAP is attempting to own the 'free speech versus the state' frame heading into the next election cycle. But the claims deserve scrutiny: the specific law mandating three-hour post deletions has not been independently verified in this report, and Kejriwal's track record of making sweeping allegations without granular legal citations is well established. The more significant question is whether the Modi government will respond with policy clarity or silence — because silence, in this digital moment, tends to confirm the narrative it is trying to deny.
NationPress
7 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Arvind Kejriwal say about the Modi government and Gen Z?
Kejriwal accused the Modi-led government of being 'scared' of India's youth and using new legal and platform-level tools to silence their voices. He made the remarks in a video blog on 7 August, linking them to the ongoing student protest movement.
What is the new social media law Kejriwal is referring to?
Kejriwal claimed the Centre has enacted a provision requiring social media platforms to delete any post, article, or video critical of the government within three hours of receiving a government directive. The specific legislation has not been independently detailed in official government communications cited in this report.
What happened at Jantar Mantar that Kejriwal referenced?
Kejriwal referred to a student protest at Jantar Mantar as evidence of a decade of accumulated public anger. He alleged that students, including women, were 'abused, insulted and forced to silence their dissent' during the demonstration.
Why did Kejriwal criticise Meta India?
A day before his video blog, Kejriwal accused Meta India of restricting his social media account without providing a justifiable reason. He suggested the restriction amounted to the platform bowing to pressure from the Prime Minister's office.
Has the BJP or the Centre responded to Kejriwal's allegations?
As of this report, the BJP-led Centre has not issued a formal response to Kejriwal's specific claims about the three-hour content-removal law or the broader allegations of targeting student protesters.
