'We Have a State That's Distributing UAPA Like Prasad': Swara to Mamata Banerjee

Artistes such as Swara Bhasker, Munawar Faruqui, Agrima Joshua were present at an interactive session with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Mumbai on Wednesday, 1 December.

Swara told Banerjee that artistes today are facing a lot of resistance in telling stories. "There are many young people who have risked their careers, their livelihoods to keep resistance alive in their own small ways", the actor said. Introducing stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui Swara added that he spent a month in jail and is constantly being targeted by right-wing groups. She also pointed to another person whose venue had been vandalised for hosting comedians Aditi Mittal, Munawar, Agrima Joshua.

"We also have Richa Chadha and others here who are from the film industry. We are facing a lot of resistance to tell stories. We are in a situation today where, for a common citizen like me, on one side there is the mob that's completely unaccountable because the ruling dispensation has found a way to use the mob to its liking and the police and state seem to be fine with it. On the other side you have a state that uses arbitrary power and is distributing UAPA and sedition charges as a prasad from a God we don’t want to pray to but are forced to bow down to. This is our reality", Swara told Banerjee.

Swara continued by saying that there is no Meryl Streep in India because Streep could "stand in front of the President elect of her country and critique him in the harshest way, and not a hair on her head was harmed". "But we are all unemployable today", the actor concluded.

Mamata Banerjee met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar at his residence in Mumbai. She also had a discussion with Sanjay Raut and Aditya Thackeray. "A strong alternative should be given against the way fascism is going on in the country today. No one can do this alone. We will support those who are powerful in their own region", Banerjee said.

(With inputs from ANI)