Hollywood star John Cusack condemns attack on students while Indians debate over Bollywood’s stand on Twitter

At a time when there was a lukewarm response from the Bollywood personalities over the police brutality on students during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Hollywood actor John Cusack on Monday took to Twitter to condemn the police crackdown on students during the protest against the amended Citizenship Act in Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi. Cusack was quite vocal in his criticism of the Modi government.

American star, Cusack, who gave blockbusters movies like "2012" and also an activist, shared videos of the attacks on social media and wrote, “Solidarity.”

Cusack also retweeted a series of tweets posted by Indians on the active protests which have spread all over the country.

He shared pictures of citizens in California who are taking part in the protest there against the Citizenship Act.

In his tweet, he targeted the Indian economy by saying- “It was in Intensive Care Unit (ICU).”

In another tweet, he said, "Reports from Delhi are it was a war zone last night - Fascism is not a joke - we use the word with the understanding it’s deadly."

Although Bollywood actors like Taapsee Pannu, Manoj Bajpayee, Parinati Chopra, Swara Bhaskar, Anubhav Sinha and Anurag Kashyap also expressed solidarity with the students, the bigger stars like the Khans, Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar maintained silence. It ensued a major debate on the micro-blogging site, Twitter. Some condemned the Bollywood celebrities speaking in favour of it and many slamming them for their silence with the #ShameonBollywood.

In the official statement by Jamia's Vice-Chancellor, Around 200 students have been injured in the police crackdown and university property has also been damaged after cops forcefully entered the university on Sunday night.

The Citizenship Act, 2019 was passed during the winter session of Parliament which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities coming from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, but excluded the Muslim minorities from the act. It sparked major protests across the country.