At a public discussion on dissent and the shrinking democratic space, held as part of the APCR session on anti-CAA activists’ bail denial, actor Prakash Raj warned that “Indian right-wingers are waiting for Israel to achieve their genocide so that they can do that too.”
He was speaking at a public discussion organised by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights India on “Longing for Justice: Continuous Denial of Bail & Caging Dissent” on Wednesday, strongly criticising the government for stifling dissent.
“We all should understand this right-wing government, and right-wing governments across the world, want us to watch a genocide. They want to make it into a new normal,” Raj said, highlighting that young dissenting voices are being jailed because “they are the future leaders, they are educated, they have a voice, and yes, they are Muslims. That is why the government is afraid of them.”
“You know what is happening in this country, how this government is using institutions to keep young Indians in jail so that they can stay in power. The atmosphere has already been created in this country,” he noted.
Explaining how an atmosphere of fear has already been created in the country, Raj recalled a friend who “fears Muslims but loves Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan, worships them, yet still fears Muslims. When he is sad, he listens to Mohammed Rafi; when he wants to express love, he turns to Faiz’s poetry, but he still fears Muslims.”
“He was the victim of WhatsApp University,” Raj observed.
Speaking about the Gauri Lankesh murder, he said, “We caught the culprits, but within years her murderers will walk free because it depends on who will open the ‘dam.’”
When a journalist asked him to speak in Hindi, Raj quipped in English, “Hindi nahi aata hai” (I don’t know Hindi), drawing loud applause and making a pointed political statement at a time of ongoing Hindi imposition debates.
“In this country, a man comes home with half a kilo of mutton, rumours spread, a mob gathers, and before he knows what is happening, he is killed. He doesn’t even know why he died. It’s not about rule, it’s not about justice, it’s not about conspiracies, it is all narratives they are building, which they want to turn into the new normal,” Raj said.
“If we don’t stand up and say, ‘No human is illegal on this earth,’ if we don’t affirm that humans will always move, that the world belongs to all,” he asserted, “these genocides will continue. The only way is resilience,” stating that “I have hope.”
Remembering his visit to activist Umar Khalid’s home, he said, “His friends who have been with him for five years gave me hope. Why are they keeping us here, why are they frustrating us? Because they want to break us, to make us give up. The only way to continue is to stand. You have to raise your voice.”
Raj said he often wondered where Umar Khalid’s resilience came from. He recalled that when a friend suggested to Umar’s father that the activist should move to South India after his release, the father firmly responded, “My son will not go anywhere. He will stay here and continue his fight.”
“This is the resilience the government is afraid of,” Raj said, reaffirming that, “They fear questioning, and will continue to, because they have the system in their hands. The only way is to keep raising our voices continuously.”
On being questioned about why he speaks out, Raj said that as an artist he cannot remain silent. “They ask me why I speak,” he noted, explaining, “I speak against the system, against this inhuman government, against its politics. I am an artist, not a politician.”
Quoting Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul, he said, “In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political, I must listen to the birds, and in order to hear the birds, the warplanes must be silent.”
Raj urged people to raise their voices, so that “we can give them hope that they did not break us. The day they break us, they will release us. But we will not break. And the strength and the way ahead is to keep raising our voice and keep asking questions.”
The program was held in light of the continuous denial of bail to anti-CAA activists jailed for over five years in the Delhi pogrom conspiracy case under the stringent UAPA.
The program unfolded in two parts, first, a Lawyers’ Panel featuring Advocates Colin Gonsalves, Nitya Ramakrishnan, Prashant Bhushan, and Warisha Farasat, and Advocate Shahrukh Alam, which delved into the legal dimensions of state repression.
The second half of the programme featured Justice Iqbal Ansari, Adv. Sanjay Hegde, former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, and actor-activist Prakash Raj.
The event was also attended by family members of the jailed activists, including Umar Khalid’s father, Gulfisha Fatima’s parents, Athar Khan’s uncle, Meeran Haider’s sister, and others.
Former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, who resigned from the civil services in August 2019 in protest against the abrogation of Article 370, asserted, “Justice is not the judge’s charity; the primary role of the judiciary is to check state excesses and protect individuals from them,” while also highlighting the role of the police administration in this.
“Umar and I share similar views; I don’t think there is much difference. However, there is a privilege that comes with being part of the majority,” he said, observing that, “that privilege also carries responsibility.”
“The real anti-nationals are those who stay silent even when they know the government is doing wrong to the country. Sedition should apply to them,” he said.
“The state has a pattern: during protests, it pushes one side against the other, creating conflict among people, because it cannot directly use force. This has happened in Hindu-Muslim conflicts, the farmers’ protests, and in Manipur,” he alleged.
“Why should another group respond to it, when it is essentially a conflict between the people and the government? Turning protests into people-versus-people fights is one of the easiest ways for the state to avoid accountability,” he asked.
He noted that “By charging activists under the UAPA, we are trivializing terrorism and national security. Those who actually caused riots are free, while those accused of conspiracy remain without trial. This is either incompetence or complicity.”
Advocate Colin Gonsalves, pointing to a poster of the jailed activists, asked the audience, “Are they terrorists?” and, after they replied “No,” shot back, “None of them had a knife, an AK-47, or a bomb, so how did the Modi government keep them jailed for five years, people who didn’t carry weapons or attack anyone? Why invoke anti-terror laws against them?”
“The greatest weapons they have,” Gonsalves emphasized, “the NIA and the Indian government understood are a mind, a tongue, a heart, and the determination not to allow injustice. These are the best weapons.”
He also recalled Shadab Khan, who languished in jail for 32 years without a single conviction, simply for speaking about the pain in Kashmir.
“Our comrades have been in jail for five years without trial. Everyone knows who instigated the Delhi riots. Yet instead of accountability, we see the incarceration of students and activists. The judiciary, which should be fearless, has lost its courage.”
He urged people to fight against the government non-violently, calling it “worse than the British.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan linked the denial of bail to the deliberate assignment of sensitive cases to “government judges,” citing the example of Justice Bela Trivedi, saying, “Everyone knows which judges are ‘government judges.’ Sensitive cases are deliberately assigned to them. This is why bail becomes impossible, not because the law demands it, but because the judiciary has been compromised.”
He also flagged the danger of misuse of the “master of the roster” power, the exclusive administrative authority of a Chief Justice to constitute benches and allocate cases to them.
“When there is no intention of running a trial, how long will you keep people inside? Five years? Ten years? Bail is a constitutional right under Article 21, not a favour dispensed by the state. To deny bail indefinitely is political imprisonment,” said Advocate Sanjay Hegde, highlighting the misuse of incarceration.
Adv. Shahrukh Alam questioned the very basis of the prosecutions, stating, “In a democracy, dissent cannot be called a conspiracy.”
“Where is the evidence? Who has been provoked? Who has been incited? We are punishing thought and speech, not violence,” she asked.
“Expression of opinion has been made into an offence. The state treats discomfort as a crime and bail as an act of mercy rather than a right. This reverses the entire logic of a constitutional democracy,” said Adv. Nitya Ramakrishnan, describing the way ordinary rights are being criminalised.
Adv. Warisha Farasat reminded the audience that “This is the first time UAPA has been applied in a riot case. Between 1984 and 2002 in Gujarat, no such charges were ever invoked,” pointing out, “The choice to apply them here shows how selectively law is weaponised.”
Justice Iqbal Ansari, former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, stressed the judiciary’s constitutional duty, saying, “The soul of democracy is the right to disagree. When a judge closes his eyes and mouth, he betrays his role as guardian of the Constitution. Silence from the judiciary is not neutrality; it is complicity.”
The event was held in the wake of bail pleas for anti-CAA activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Athar Khan, Shadab Ahmed, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa-ur-Rehman, and Tahir Hussain.
On September 2, 2025, the Delhi High Court dismissed bail pleas for nine of these activists, some of whom have been imprisoned since 2020—over 2,000 days for certain individuals.
On September 12, 2025, the Supreme Court adjourned hearings on bail pleas for Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, and Meeran Haider to September 19, citing late receipt of files.
On September 19, the Supreme Court again adjourned the bail pleas of five anti-CAA activists, with the matter listed before Justices Aravind Kumar and Manmohan.
Human rights groups have described the prolonged five-year incarceration of Muslim activists and scholars without bail or trial as “injustice” and “politically motivated,” warning that it “strangles democracy,” violates the right to bail, and reflects “systemic targeting,” with UAPA being used as a tool to punish dissent without due process.
