As millions of protesters gather across America, including in front of the White House, in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Bollywood celebrities from India, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tiger Shroff, and Ranveer Shorey, among others, have expressed solidarity with it.
B-town stars who have shared the widely circulated “Please! I cannot breathe” post – which were Floyd’s close-to-last words before he was suffocated to death by the police – on their social networking handles, are drawing flak for maintaining pin drop silence when India was burning in communal clashes at the beginning of the year.
Priyanka Chopra is the truest definition of NRIs saying BLM but not giving a shit about the numerous Kashmiris killed by the Indian forces. pic.twitter.com/8d47kOff0l
— Didi Dialectic 🌱🌈🌻 (@anuxiety_) May 29, 2020
The Black resistance movement in the USA DOES NOT need sUPpOrT from spinless leeches like you. You can not stay tight-lipped on Rohith Vemula, Delhi Pogrom, CAA/NRC, Najeeb, Akhlaq, Payal Tadvi, Delta Meghwal and then pretend to care about racial injustice in the US. 2/3
— Revolutionary Memes For Bahujan Teens (@RMBT_tweets) May 30, 2020
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In fact #PriyankaChopra was rightly described as a con-woman. #BlackLivesMatter https://t.co/jDu5w7xdSh
— Fascism Watch (@Quagmire4u) May 30, 2020
The hypocrisy when Indian celebs tweet about what's happening around the world but choose silence about what's happening in their own country.#BlackLivesMatter #AllLivesMatters #India #Kashmir #PoliceBrutality #rasicm #Indian #DelhiGovt #PriyankaChopra #KareenaKapoorKhan
— Qurrat (@Qurrat71) June 1, 2020
Hey Bollywood celebrities, students' lives don't matter? Vocal for local? Please? #Bollywood #PriyankaChopra #TigerShroff #DishaPatani #VocalForLocal #Modi #BlackLivesMatter #StudentsLivesMatter #Jamia #safoorazargar #PinjraTod
— Devika Mittal (@devikasmittal) June 2, 2020
Kashmir-based Indian politician Omar Abdullah also bashed the B-town celebs for taking a stand in other country’s mess – when they chose to keep quiet when their own country was a mess.
So much respect for all the celebrities tweeting #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER. It takes courage to bring your cowardice to the fore when you tweet for American lives but can’t tweet for Indian lives.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 31, 2020
In January 2020, India's capital Delhi was burning in riots that erupted between orthodox Hindus and Muslims after the Narendra Modi government passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in December 2019. While the CAA restricted illegal Muslim migrants from applying for fast-tracked Indian citizenships, NRC required Indians – especially minorities – to prove their ethnicity with ancestral paperwork and documents.
Millennials in India – several of whom were students – came forward as front liners at the time to protest against the perceived communal discrimination. The protestors were met with violence, where police officials were accused of initiating physical tussles in several instances. Civilians, as well as police officials, lost their lives during the violent days – which witnessed stone pelting and even gun crimes.
On 15 December, the police used tear gas shells and cane-charges to control mobs in Delhi, on the same day that the government enforced the CAA. Police allegedly dragged students out of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi after the protest turned ugly. More than 100 activists and 35 policemen, including some senior officers, were injured.
Similar instances were reported from other colleges and universities, including Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in India.
