Delhi witnessed around 50,000 protesters take to the streets for the ‘Chalo Sansad’ march, walking from Jantar Mantar to Parliament. As images of the capital began to circulate online, Huma Qureshi responded to reports of an alleged police charge against students and protesters. Taking to Instagram, the actress posted a lengthy note revealing that the incident had left her with “a deep sense of sadness”.
Instagram note by Huma Qureshi
Taking to her Instagram, Huma wrote: “Today’s images will stay with me for a long time. Seeing how peaceful protesters were met with brute force and it left me deeply saddened. Surely this could have been handled with much more patience, more listening and more dialogue.”He added: “We, the people of India, elected this government and today we all have to ask questions and expect accountability. We are a huge and diverse nation. We don’t all have to agree on every issue, but surely we can agree that every citizen deserves to be heard with dignity before force becomes the answer.”“Respect to every student and every citizen who decided to stand peacefully for what they believe in. Jai Hind,” he concluded.
Hema Malini, Kangana Ranaut break up the protest
Hema Malini and Kangana Ranaut, present on the opening day of the Monsoon Session, spoke to reporters and expressed their disapproval of the protest. Hema said, “If there is a problem, it should be spoken about properly. Protesting like this will not achieve anything. As far as the youth of the country and the education system are concerned, our Modi government has always stood by them and done a great job. Keeping this in mind, the protests you are doing now are meaningless.“Kangana stated, “If you feel so strongly, you should contest the elections yourself. You cannot twist the government to decide who to fire and who to retain; this kind of arm-twisting is not acceptable. Gradually, everyone will seek refuge in the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sanatan culture because this is our own culture, while the rest of the world has borrowed it.”
Celebrities extend their support
The Jantar Mantar protest had celebrities like Prakash Raj, veteran actor Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah among those present. Before, including several other stars Sony RazdanZeenat Aman, Abhay Deol, Sonakshi SinhaOmi Vaidya, Imran Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, had taken to social media to show their support to Sonam Wangchuk and protesters observing a hunger strike.