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The breathtakingly preachy headline –“ Gen Z, Gen Alpha must put nation first: Sitharaman”– in Business Standard (September 16, 2026) demanded attention and scrutiny. The finance minister was sermonising at a convocation ceremony in Chennai on Tuesday (September 15). Could it be the beginning of a serious dialogue between a geriatric ruling establishment and a young generation that is now refusing to abide by the rules of command and obedience put in place since 2014?

Admitted that Nirmala Sitharaman, the woman in charge of our nation’s financial well-being, is not the kind of heavy-weight ideologue who sets the party’s “line” in stone, and, it is probably unfair to join issues with her public pronouncements. But, then from an intelligent and combative Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson she has graduated to a place in the inner most council of the Indian State – the Cabinet Committee on Security. Having held the finance portfolio for seven years, she cannot be unfamiliar with the intellectual nuances and the layers of conceit of her leader.

As per reports, the honourable finance minister talked down to the young. Nothing surprising. So have the prime minister and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) boss spoken in a similar vein in recent days. What makes Sitharaman’s observations worthy of dissection is that she definitely reflects the ruling clique’s mindset. And, the leitmotif of this new ruling’s class self-appreciation........

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