The Govt’s Reaction to the Students Has Been Strong But They Do Not have the Guts to go Beyond This

never in major situations like this does anything without political construction surely they cannot be so so blind as to think they will be able to control it in the way they controlled the the protest in the way they controlled the farmers etc you can query this. This will be a changing point in India's Are appeals being made by We respect you, we have your good at heart, but please don't get exploited by political parties. Tell me, what should the Parliament discuss? They will discuss that this film has to be supported or will they discuss issues that concern government that what they are doing has not found favour with anybody. Hello and welcome to the Wire Talks. I'm Siddharth Bhatia. The protest by the Kokro Janata Party at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, which began to demand the resignation of the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, because of the leaks of the NET exam paper, have now been Tens of thousands of young people collectively now called Gen Z have congregated in Delhi and also in different parts of the country. The hunger strike of and activist Sonam Wang also galvanized the protesters. Instead of reaching out to them, the Modi government has reacted by sending the police and then paramilitary forces to control them. Initially, there were which has provoked outrage throughout the country. The protesters, however, have kept on coming. Many high-profile people have extended support to the protesters, including actors Prakash Raj, Arijit Singh. Shabana Azmi who is also activist joins us today to talk about what she saw and felt in Delhi. Welcome to the Wire Talk, Shabana Azmi. Thank you. Thank you very much. Why did you decide to go to the protest in Delhi? You see, I was very disturbed by what I was seeing on the social media and the fact that no attention was being paid to the real, real hurt and anger and grievance that the children were expressing and so apart from you know making a few comments on the social media I thought it was very important for me to be there personally and physically. And so very sensibly, I think, both Javed Saab and I, Javed Akhtar and I, wrote a letter on the 15th. saying that you know we have no intentions of going to the press appealing to you as concerned citizens and as former members of the Rajya Sabha. And so please initiate a dialogue with them. It was as simple as that. And I think our earnestness cannot be doubted. If you want, I can share the letter with you also. And so immediately in about less than two hours, we got, I sent it by email, I sent it personally, and I sent it on fax. Within two hours we got an acknowledgement and they said we will get back to you in two days. So I waited two days, three days, four days. Fifth day I decided that since... more and more intense I can't endlessly wait for this and so I went when I went there and saw the sea of young faces all of them young with anxiety And I felt they were so charged, they were so charged that they absolutely needed that kind of support. By that time Sonam Vangchuk had already been shifted to the hospital along with some of the fasting members and obviously they needed the fillet and I knew that the next day on the 20th there was going to be a march to Parliament in which I felt it was very important for me to join. there went there I was density of their feelings as well as hope. Hope that something is going to be done, that their issues are going to be So next day, when the march happened, when the march was decided, Everything had been closed down and there was no way that we could reach Parliament. important thing to know is that from the podium everybody who spoke kept insisting that it should be violence, non-violent demonstration. And... surprised that in spite of their anger and in spite of the fact that they were stopped from what is completely democratic right of marching to parliament they still listened they listened and they did not do anything for which they could be faulted so at one time I was taken and then that I just lay down in the truck and one of the activists came running to me and said please get up please get up because there's likely to be a stampede and you will be crushed so I got up I got up and I went to the grill of the and a big stone I mean, I just escaped it because of the grill. I'm not saying that it was directed to me, but it was heard. Then I saw complete mayhem. I saw the tear gas and then the lathi charge. So I came down and I went and sat in the mud with the students who were still there. Now the students who... been brutally injured and largely charged all came me. A little 15 or 16 year old boy who had come walking from because the metro lines had all been closed. He was so young, slim little boy. I said, what makes you come here? again this was the pure Jaspa which I cannot even explain I cannot even explain to you the the selflessness with which they had come they had lots of mothers supporting As well, mothers were really angry because they had mortgaged their jewellery, they had taken loans to educate their children and now what was happening was unfair. So by that time, sorry if I am telling the details too much but I just wanted to be recorded. I wanted to come to a few points but you can wind up if you want to. Not an asthma attack, because I'm an asthmatic. me to a safe place. I got my breath and I went back and stayed with them and continued. what they were doing. Yeah, Shabana, you made a lot of interesting points. You covered quite a lot of ground. you were witness to mayhem as well as the as you called it uh hope and anger but by now hope would have turned to anger wouldn't by now, I mean, that means that we... to walk there. We have not indulged in violence. Of course it was- They were very angry but they still could not believe that issues that they had raised, the concerns were real. We have a ruling party and the leaders always calling out the youth and saying the youth are our biggest strength and all that. That's when I left them at that point when although they were Police said that someone has thrown a shoe on us. The children are saying that's not true at all. Now it's their word against the police. come on the police can tolerate a shoe yeah come on i mean this is absurd you know when we look at this siddharth what are we seeing we are seeing that you know whenever the the police have to disperse what they call an unlawful gathering there is a perfect protocol that