Police entered Jamia Millia Islamia campus and used force to evict students after protesters of the new Citizenship Amendment Bill turned violent and torched four public transport buses and damaged several others. Over 100 students and 35 police personnel were injured in the clashes.
The act was given a thumbs down by many including some Bollywood personalities who felt it was “barbaric and inhuman” and against the constitutional right of expression.
Celebrities from Bollywood including actress Parineeti Chopra, Huma Qureshi, noted filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt and Anubhav Sinha have condemned the police crackdown and accused the government of trying to stifle voices of dissent.
Huma Qureshi felt the government has created a law against its own people, “following the Nazi Germany model”.
A democratically elected Govt that creates laws against its own people is following the Nazi Germany model clearly. This government has failed the people of this country. See what is happening on the streets . India is protesting 🇮🇳 You cannot divide us https://t.co/5toqbTkSOS
— Huma Qureshi (@humasqureshi) December 17, 2019
One of her Pinned tweets also questions Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over why such actions were taken when students have the right to protest peacefully.
This is unreal. We are a secular democracy. This violence that the police have shown in dealing with the students is terrible. Citizens have the right to peacefully protest. @narendramodi @AmitShah Or that is not an option anymore ??
— Huma Qureshi (@humasqureshi) December 16, 2019
Mahesh Bhatt said, the law is “extremely weak and an impotent tool”.
The law is an extremely weak and an impotent tool to protect humanity. pic.twitter.com/f3Cxt1jitf
— Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) December 17, 2019
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha said, students were not angry at one thing, but many.
I don’t know if they can hear it. The students are not angry about one thing. They are angry about a lot of things.
— Anubhav Sinha (@anubhavsinha) December 16, 2019
Actress Parineeti Chopra, cousin sister of Global star Priyanka Chopra, said “beating up innocent human beings for speaking their mind? BARBARIC”.
If this is what’s gonna happen everytime a citizen expresses their view, forget #CAB, we should pass a bill and not call our country a democracy anymore! Beating up innocent human beings for speaking their mind? BARBARIC.
— Parineeti Chopra (@ParineetiChopra) December 17, 2019
Renowned filmmaker Deepa Mehta retweeted a tweet shared by entrepreneur Sanjoy K Roy that states, “we live in the age of denial”.
We live in the age of denial! The government denies there is economic slowdown, they deny there is genuine unrest around the #NRC_CAB bill, they deny that #Kashmir is problematic and continue to advocate conspiracy theories! #JamiaProtests #MumbaiUniversity
— Sanjoy K Roy (@SanjoyRoyTWA) December 17, 2019
Filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava said nothing can justify what has happened to the students, “…the barbaric beating up of the innocent, the vandalizing of a space of learning, the invasion of the students' hostel. History will remember”.
Nothing can justify what has happened to the students. The broken legs, the lost eye, the assaults in the darkness, the barbaric beating up of the innocent, the vandalising of a space of learning, the invasion of the student hostels. History will remember.
— Alankrita Shrivastava (@alankrita601) December 16, 2019
Earlier, celebrities like Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu, Konkona Sensharma and Sudhir Mishra also had condemned police highhandedness at Jamia Millia Islamia.
The amended Citizenship Act grants Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis who have faced persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and migrated to India before 2015.
The Law, however, contentiously does not grant citizenship to Muslims arriving from these three neighbouring countries – something which protesters believe violates the Indian Constitution
