As protests ravage India, more than 100 students have been injured after baton-wielding police charged at them and fired tear gas at two federally-run universities where students were holding anti-citizenship law protests.
According to reports, students in New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Uttar Pradesh state’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) had been protesting since the new law was passed last week.
The contentious law grants citizenship to religious minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians – from neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
While critics say it is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalise the 200-million strong Islamic minority, Modi denies this, saying that the new law “does not affect any citizen of India of any religion”, while accusing “vested interest groups” of stoking the “deeply distressing” unrest.
As the protests get bloodier, people are asking Bollywood celebrities especially Shah Rukh Khan who is an alumnus of Jamia Millia Delhi, to speak up on the matter and express their solidarity.
While A-lister celebrities including the Khans, Kapoors and Priyanka Chopra have remained silent on the matter, other celebs including Sidharth Malhotra, Ayushmann Khurana, Dia Mirza and Vicky Kaushal have condemned this violence.
