“This has gone too far...can’t stay silent any longer. This government is clearly fascist...” wrote notable filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on Twitter, as he signalled a comeback to the microblogging platform, following Delhi Police’s controversial action on students inside Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019.
The Gangs of Wasseypur director, known in equal parts for his finesse on the silver screen as well as for his critical comments on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s policies, had quit the microblogging platforms after his daughter received rape threats online, followed by threat calls to his parents.
“When I won't be allowed to speak my mind without fear, then I would rather not speak at all,” Kashyap has tweeted, before erasing his Twitter account in August 2019.
Kashyap, along with actor Taapsee Pannu, have come under the taxman’s glare and were raided by Income Tax officials in Pune on Wednesday, 4 March, allegedly on charges of tax evasion.
From the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to the farmers’ protests, here’s a look at public statements made by both Kashyap and Pannu on a range of issues.
Kashyap’s Critical Lens
Kashyap, who has directed critically-acclaimed films like Black Friday, Bombay Velvet, Dev.D, Ghost Stories, as well as web series like Sacred Games, had tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a controversial tweet, following the latter’s massive victory in 2019 general elections.
Congratulating the Prime Minister on his party’s victory, Kashyap had on 23 May, 2019, asked the former on ways to deal with his followers who had allegedly handed out rape threats to the filmmaker’s daughter.
Trolled incessantly over him having tagged PM Modi, Kashyap later told news agency PTI that he did not mind that the Prime Minister he supported that year did not win, while adding that just because he doesn’t agree with the Prime Minister, it doesn’t mean that he won’t get elected.
From Lynching to Article 370
- In July 2019, Kashyap was among 49 celebrities who wrote to the Prime Minister expressing concern over growing instances of lynching in the country. Demanding that the “lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities” be stopped immediately, the letter said that chants of “Jai Shree Ram” were being used as a war cry.
- Following the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Kashyap tweeted that it was “scary” that a single person could know the right thing to do for the benefit of 1,200,000,000 people and has the access to the power to execute it.
Kashyap’s Staunch Stance Against CAA
Making his reservations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) clear, Kashyap had in January, 2020, tweeted that it was impossible for the Centre to take the controversial law back, as it would only mean defeat for the government.
“CAA/CAB is not going to go anywhere. It is impossible for them to take anything back because it will be a defeat for them. This government sees everything as a win-win. Their ego is such that, all will be burnt to ashes. But Modi can never be wrong. Why? Because illiterate people are like this,” Kashyap had tweeted.
Kashyap, who also visited Jamia Milia Islamia on 14 February, had said that he does not trust Home Minister Amit Shah, because none of what he or his party says is coherent.
“I don’t have any faith in the Home Minister’s words. First, he said the Bill won’t be passed and then, he said he is open to a discussion. I don’t listen to him anymore,” Kashyap had said.
Pannu Backed Farmers’ Protests
Like Kashyap, actor Taapsee Pannu, too, has been vocal about a range of issues – the most prominent being the farmers’ protest that originated in her home state, Punjab.
The Thappad actor had not only retweeted Rihanna’s post on farmers’ protest, but also poster her own thoughts on the matter when many in India dubbed the pop star an outsider and accused her of being paid for speaking on the issue.
Retweeting an NDTV report in which farmers at the Singhu border said that women and the young were taking care of fields while elders were protesting at the borders, Pannu asked: “I have only one heart. How many times will you win it?”
Reacting to a news report on how the police in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, which had implemented a law popularly known as ‘love jihad’, had stopped an interfaith wedding in Lucknow, Pannu said, “So now the parents’ nod is not enough. We need to apply for government permission to marry. Future generation please add this to your marriage ‘to-do’ list. And then they complain institution is dying.[sic.]”
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