Veteran actor Shabana Azmi has revealed that her husband, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before she joined the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest, reports Times of India.
Speaking during the CJP’s “Sansad Chalo” protest, Azmi said Akhtar had already conveyed the couple’s concerns to the Prime Minister in writing before she decided to participate in the demonstrations.
Azmi joined protesters at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar after previously expressing support for the movement.
It has called for accountability over alleged examination paper leaks and demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The veteran actor said she attended the protest because she believed the students’ concerns deserved to be heard.
She also recited Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s iconic poem Bol Ke Lab Azaad Hain Tere, expressing solidarity with the demonstrators.
Earlier this month, the CJP itself released an open letter to Prime Minister Modi, urging him to break what it described as his “resounding silence” over the protests.
The letter asked the Prime Minister to hold the education minister accountable for the alleged exam paper leaks, address student suicides linked to the crisis and respond to activist Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike.
The youth-led movement has grown rapidly in recent weeks, drawing support from students, activists and public figures as it presses for reforms in India’s examination system.
