Prominent members of the film industry, well known stand-up comics and other activists wrote a statement and put it out on social media to highlight what they call is a “witch-hunt” against protestors who stood against the CAA-NRC-NPR. They issued the letter on Sunday, signed by 29 artistes, saying “Protesting Against the CAA is not a Crime”.
The 29 signatories include Mahesh Bhatt, Aparna Sen, Ratna Pathak Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Vishal Dadlani, Nandita Das, Konkona Sen Sharma, Hansal Mehta, Onir, Sushant Singh, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Neeraj Ghaywan, Ashwini Chaudhury, Ankur Tewari, Abish Mathew, Andre Borges, Mallika Dua, Saba Singh Azad, Sohail Tatari, Kushan Nandy among others.
The letter talks about the “grave crisis” the country is under with regards to the pandemic, and expresses horror over the fact that two students from Jamia Millia Islamia and several activists from North-East Delhi have been arrested in the midst of the lockdown. It goes on to express shock about it expresses shock that more students and activists are being called for questioning and interrogation by the police on a daily basis. The statement says that the COVID-19 lockdown cannot be used as an excuse to curtail the rights of citizens and that must not be “abused by the authorities in this manner.”
“In a twisted fairy tale that the Delhi Police is trying to weave, these activists are now being implicated in cases related to the communal violence in Delhi that took place in February. A riot in which the minorities suffered the maximum damage, both in terms of lives and livelihoods, has now become a pretext for the Delhi Police to further witch-hunt activists, most of whom also come from the minority community,” says the statement.
The letter ends with an appeal for the authorities to work with the citizens during the pandemic. “We urge the Delhi Police to stop abusing the lockdown, respect the human rights of our fellow citizens and put an end to this witch-hunt. We demand the release of these students and activists,” it says.
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