I saw lathicharge on young girls: Shabana Azmi on CJP Delhi protests
In an exclusive conversation with India Today, actress Shabana Azmi said that she saw tear gas and lathicharge on students during the Sansad Chalo march. He said the protesters remained nonviolent and refused to retreat despite injuries.
Veteran actress Shabana Azmi, who joined the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led protest march in Delhi on Monday, said she saw tear gas being used and students, including young girls, being lathicharged during the protest. In an exclusive interview with India Today after joining the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march, Azmi said that the students are trying to keep the protest completely non-violent.
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Azmi, one of the few film personalities to publicly support the protests over the NEET-UG question paper leak and demand for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, said the force used against the students was contrary to their stated objective of the talks. He said the protesters were angry but disciplined and remained firm even after the police action.
Speaking to Rajdeep Sardesai, Azmi said, “I was there when the tear gas was fired. I was there and I saw lathicharge on children and also saw lathicharge on girls.” He said the blame was then placed on the students and claims that someone had thrown a shoe led to the action, but he also said that this was not what they had seen. He said that the students also kept telling him the same thing while showing him their injuries.
Watch the interview here:
According to Azmi, the students have repeatedly said that they want to conduct completely non-violent protests and this message is being continuously given to them from the stage.
He said he had rarely seen such restraint among the youth, who were full of anger and rage, yet determined to remain peaceful. Azmi said that even after tear gas and lathicharge, the students did not appear ready to retreat.
“And I’ve never seen such controlled kids when they were so full of anger and rage, but absolutely determined that it would be nonviolent. But the good thing is that even after it happened, when I asked them, ‘Are you scared? Are you going to back off now?’ None of them, not even one of them said that we are scared, or that we are going to stop from now on,” the 75-year-old man said.
Azmi, who participated in the march and actively participated in the protests on Monday, also recalled meeting very young protesters, including 15-year-old children, who came with courage and conviction. Referring to what he told them, Azmi said that he felt that if he had not come that day, he would have been embarrassed for the rest of his life and his only appeal to the people was to listen to what the students were saying.
The ‘Sansad Chalo’ march was a youth-led protest demanding the resignation of the Union Education Minister and reforms in the examination system following the NEET-UG paper leak and other irregularities.