Neha Bora | The permanence of agitation

Illustration: Sreejith R. Kumar

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. Maybe many of us won’t be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.” In 2024, Neha Bora cited this quote by Arundhati Roy, calling her work a “bridge to the possibility of a different or better world”.

Today, amid widespread protests in Delhi against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls and state crackdown, Neha, 29, a PhD student from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and a non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns, stands at the centre of the movement. Neha, the current president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, came into the national spotlight during a 23-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar that began on June 28. The protest culminated in the resignation of then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Also read | ‘Coordination with CJP on agenda basis, but alliances are always on radar’: Neha Bora

For Neha and their team, they are doing “nothing different from what they have been doing over the last few years” — protesting for what they believe in. Videos of Neha being detained by the police during protests in the city four years ago are resurfacing, drawing comparisons with footage of the activist’s recent detention.