Bollywood called out for silence on Indian police brutality against students
- By Web Desk -
- Dec 16, 2019
Twitter has called out Bollywood for its deafening silence on Indian police’s action against students from different Delhi universities.
On Sunday, hundreds of people including locals and students from Jamia Milia University and Aligarh Muslim University protested against a discriminatory new citizenship law, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
Students of MCRC, #JamiaMilia -Srijan Chawla and Bhumika Saraswati describe what they saw last evening. Both the girls say students did not indulge in violence. Spoke to them just now at the ongoing protests against #CitizenshipAmendmentAct #CABProtests pic.twitter.com/xlnUqjEfB6
— Shweta Bajaj (@ShwetaBajaj) December 16, 2019
The protest turned violent and clashes erupted after Indian police fired tear-gas and baton-charged students to disperse the demonstrators.
According to Indian media reports, later the police stormed the JMI campus without permission, fired tear-gas and detained around 100 students who were eventually released.
People are calling out major Bollywood stars for not condemning Indian police’s brutality against students. Jamia’s alumni Shah Rukh Khan including ace Indian actors have chosen to remain silent.
Margarita with a Straw actor Sayani Gupta called out the fraternity’s silence by sharing a picture of them with Indian premier Narendra Modi. She requested the actors to speak up against police brutality.
On behalf of the students of Jamia & AMU request at least one of you to tweet or message Mr.Modi condemning this act of police brutality and violence against students. The time has come to speak up guys. Yes? No? May be?@RanveerOfficial @karanjohar @ayushmannk @RajkummarRao pic.twitter.com/6l5ky5zbNt
— Sayani Gupta (@sayanigupta) December 15, 2019
A Twitter user said that major Bollywood celebs are worried about box office returns, hence they won’t speak up.
https://twitter.com/AruniKashyap/status/1206389039949131776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1206389039949131776&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.in%2Fentry%2Fjamia-millia-islamia-people-are-calling-out-bollywood-for-its-silence-and-spinelessness-on-student-protests_in_5df6fef2e4b047e8889f865f
However, a few actors including Dia Mirza, Swara Bhasker, Mahesh Bhat finally spoke up and registered their dissent.
“What is happening in our country should make us all hang our heads in shame,” Dia Mirza wrote.
What is happening in our country should make us all hang our heads in shame. Shame. Now is the time to come together and act as one nation, one people, one country. NOW.
— Dia Mirza (@deespeak) December 16, 2019
Actress Swara Bhasker called the act “Shameful.”
Absolutely shameful conduct by @DelhiPolice https://t.co/xUFxzJtzen
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) December 15, 2019
Prominent Indian director Mahesh Bhatt also voiced out his concerns.
“If you have no love – do what you will. Go after all the Gods on earth, do all the social activities, try to reform the poor, enter politics, write books, poems- you are a dead human being. Without love your problems willl increase, multiply endlessly.”
– J. Krishnamurti pic.twitter.com/a6Ec6YnLDj— Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) December 16, 2019
Wonder if this is a start or the end. Whatever it is, this is surely writing new rules of the land and those who don’t fit in can very well see the consequences.
This video breaks heart n hopes all together. Irreversible damage,and I’m not talking about just the life n property https://t.co/QGaZYpDCR6— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) December 16, 2019