RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s dialogue with students is more than just a political message. He articulated the most crucial principle of democracy: Protest, dissent and agitations are a legitimate form of dialogue. The 2026 protests will be remembered for undoing the notion that people’s protest is the devaluation of an elected government. The first of these in our recorded history is the “Vajji message” of Lord Buddha. It is in this context that Bhagwat recalled B R Ambedkar’s last speech in the Constituent Assembly in November 1949.