Press Trust of India, Mumbai, January 5, 2019
Walls of hatred are being erected in the name of religion in India and those who stand against this “injustice” are being punished, actor Naseeruddin Shah said in a video released on Friday (January 4, 2019) by Amnesty India against alleged government “crackdown” on NGOs.
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Speak up, Lock up
In the 2.13-minute solidarity video for the human rights watchdog, Shah said those who demand rights are being locked up.
“Artistes, actors, scholars, poets are all being stifled. Journalists too are being silenced,” he said in the video message.
“In the name of religion, walls of hate are being erected. Innocents are being killed. The country is awash with horrific hatred and cruelty,” he claimed.
Punitive measures
He said that those who stood against this “injustice” were having their offices raided, licences cancelled and bank accounts frozen to silence them so that they were deterred from speaking the truth.
“Is this where our country is headed? Had we dreamt of a country where there was no space for dissent, where only the rich and powerful are heard and where the poorest and most vulnerable are oppressed? Where there once was law, there is now only darkness,” he said in the video in Urdu.
Amnesty India Statement
Under the hashtag of #AbkiBaarManavAdhikaar, Amnesty said India had witnessed a massive crackdown on freedom of expression and human rights defenders.
Aakar Patel of Amnesty India, said it might seem that the odds were against human rights defenders and civil society in India at the moment, but human rights had always won and would this time also.
Picture of Naseeruddin Shah from The Wire India
