In medical science and biological terms, the immune system protects the body by identifying and neutralising threats. But sometimes, the response is so excessive and misdirected that instead of just killing the virus, the body’s own defences attack its organs. This phenomenon is known as a CYTOKINE STORM.

So, Normal Immunity = Balanced response → pathogen destroyed, body safe.

and Cytokine Storm = Overreaction → lungs, heart, and kidneys damaged → patient worsens or dies.

Thus, what was meant to save life ends up destroying it from within.

State’s Power works as an Immune System

A modern state’s police, military, and legal apparatus function much like the immune system. They exist to protect society from internal and external threats. But their misuse or overuse can harm the very citizens or the overall governance that were meant to safeguard. Unrestrained firepower (excessive usage of immune power) can convert a local grievance into a national crisis (cytokine storm). This is cytokine storm of governance, exemplified by the surrounding events.

Recent events in Nepal (2025) and Bangladesh (2024) vividly illustrate how excessive state power can turn local grievances into systemic crises. In Nepal, protests over constitutional amendments and representation issues were met with disproportionate force, leading to dozens of deaths and a sharp erosion of trust in state institutions. Similarly, in Bangladesh, what began as peaceful student demonstrations against the government job quota system escalated into a nationwide upheaval after the state unleashed a heavy-handed crackdown—tear gas, bullets, curfews, and internet shutdowns. Instead of calming discontent, this overreaction created a vacuum of trust that opportunistic groups and radical outfits exploited, eventually destabilising the regime itself. Much like a cytokine storm in the human body, where the immune system’s uncontrolled response harms vital organs more than the original pathogen, both Nepal and Bangladesh demonstrate that the unregulated use of state firepower damages the very foundations of governance it seeks to defend.

India: Calibrated Response, Avoiding the Storm

In contrast, India’s experience with the CAA protests (2019–20) and the Farmers’ Protest (2020–21) shows how a calibrated response can prevent a cytokine storm–like collapse. Despite months-long sit-ins at Shaheen Bagh and the Republic Day violence during the farmers’ agitation, the state avoided an indiscriminate crackdown. Instead, it relied on containment, repeated rounds of dialogue, legal review, and eventually the repeal of the farm laws. This restrained approach allowed dissent to be expressed without letting discontent spiral into national destabilisation.

Just as in a healthy immune system, where regulatory mechanisms prevent an overdrive that could damage vital organs, India’s measured use of state power maintained democratic resilience and preserved institutional legitimacy.

The lesson is clear- whether in biology or governance, strength lies in regulation, not in brute force. A cytokine storm may arise from good intentions of defence, but its unchecked intensity destroys the body (STATE) itself…