Indian student leader Neha Bora has credited Bangladesh with inspiring the Gen Z movement spreading across India, saying young people protesting against the Narendra Modi government have drawn lessons from the student-led movement in Bangladesh.

“We know that the Gen Z movement that we are seeing everywhere in this country [India] first started in Bangladesh,” Bora said in a message of solidarity to the Socialist Student Front on the occasion of its sixth national conference, published on Socialist Student Front's Facebook page.

Bora, the all-India president of the All India Students' Association (AISA), extended greetings to the Socialist Student Front and congratulated Bangladeshi students for showing the way to young people in India who are fighting against the Modi government.

“We know the fight that you fight against religious fundamentalism in your country is also a fight that Gen Z and young people of this country fight today,” she said.

Bora also expressed concern over growing threats facing universities in Bangladesh, drawing parallels with the situation at Indian universities. She spoke against the saffronisation of education in India and warned that critical thinking in Bangladesh was also being silenced.

Expressing solidarity with Bangladeshi students, she called for greater cooperation among young people across the region and stressed the importance of working towards a better South Asia.

Neha Bora has emerged as one of the prominent faces of India’s Gen Z-led protest movement, drawing national attention after videos of their confrontations with police during demonstrations went viral. A theatre artist, activist and president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Bora has been at the forefront of protests against the Modi government, with their activism highlighting growing student anger over electoral reforms, academic freedom and the treatment of dissenting voices