He speaks to Jayanth Jacob about the protests in Iran and the evolving India-Iran relationship. The 2025–2026 protests mark a definitive qualitative rupture rather than a repetition of 2009, 2017–18, or 2022. Do these protests signal a crisis of governance or a crisis of legitimacy, and which of the two poses a more serious long-term challenge to the Islamic Republic? While these protests stem from acute governance failures, they reveal a far more dangerous crisis of legitimacy. By explicitly rejecting the 1979 revolutionary project, protesters signal that the social contract is not just broken, but void.

Source: Indian Express January 20, 2026 04:32 UTC