So can you tell us a little bit about where that conflict is up to? Where are we with that now?

We've almost reached a new normal when it comes to relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The root of the cause of the conflict is the resurgence of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and non-Islamist militancy, but largely Islamist militancy led by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, the TTP and other Islamist armed groups.

And Pakistan blames this to a large extent to the support that, and the freedom of movement that these groups enjoy across the border in Afghanistan.

And because it's a porous border, it's a large border, they claim that no matter the actions that they do within their own borders, as long as these militants have a safe haven in Afghanistan Pakistan would be unable to mitigate the militant threat because as soon as the military pressure subsides, these militants can just come back across the border to Pakistan, and that explains the tensions between the two countries.

But in terms of the actual conflict, we don't have the same frequency and intensity of the fighting that was seen in towards the end of February, March this year.

They've not officially called off the war to the extent [chuckles] that you can do that.

But why do we find in these neighboring states both the impetus, the form, and then the reward, I guess, for these demonstrations differ so much?

So what data does ACLED have about protests on the issue of exams, but also how these recent protests has, as you've said, become something very different?

In the last year alone, there were more than 300 protests specifically on examination leaks.

And when you think of it, the NEET exam paper was leaked only in May 2026.

So protests were happening over other exam papers leaks even before this exam paper was leaked.

These were largely led by student unions, which are an active constituency in India, and political parties, mainly the Congress Party, which is the principal opposition party, and some regional parties who sort of see these national exams as against the federal strain of the constitution.

What's happened with the CJP protests is that they've become a lot more broader in the people who are participating.

So when we see and hear testimonials from protesters, they are unaligned to any political party or student unions.

Speaking of older leaders, how have other figures like the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, responded to the protests? And then perhaps we can move to how the Prime Minister himself has responded.

So I suppose the question then is, Pearl, does this broader protest movement have a leadership that the BJP government can deal with? How do these rising tensions get resolved?

That's the interesting thing about this movement and this generation that it's all being spread through social media.

And I think that's the narrative that the government has to contend with.

It has to reach these protesters through a medium and not through negotiations with a leadership.

They have tried having talks with the CJP leadership.

They didn't work.

We're already seeing fissures between the CJP leadership and another educationist, Sonam Vangchuk, who held a hunger strike for more than 20 days.

Speaking of older leaders, how have other figures like the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, responded to the protests? And then perhaps we can move to how the Prime Minister himself has responded.