16th December 2019

We, the undersigned members of Indian Women Cinematographer’s Collective are writing this letter in solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University in their protest against the discriminatory CAA and NRC.

Since 13th Dec 2019 disturbing images and videos have surfaced showing the police brutally targeting students and protestors in university campus. We have been deeply concerned at the absolutely condemnable police action that transpired on the Jamia campus since 13th Dec 2019 and subsequently on AMU campus on 15th Dec, 2019. To dissent is a right in a free and democratic country like India and the students were peacefully exercising that right.

We, the undersigned vehemently oppose the CAA, which in conjunction with the NRC is a brutal attack on the secular character of our nation. The police brutality against the students is symptomatic of the inherent violence of the bill. The events happened in broad daylight with the national and world media watching. We shudder to think what our sisters and brothers in the far flung parts of the country must be undergoing, specially with the unconstitutional communication embargo which is becoming a staple in our democracy.

We, as artists, as cinematographers and as filmmakers stand in solidarity with the students and offer our support in their fight to uphold the constitutional right of equality.  We do hope that such an action is never repeated in future and the respective authorities are held accountable for this unconstitutional and unfortunate act.

(Disclaimer: the members who are signatories here endorse the views).

“Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism.” Howard Zinn

Signed
Savita Singh
Layashree Joshi
Nusrat F Jafri
Gautami Vegiraju
Vidushi Tiwari
Anshu
Ghania Siddique
Juhi Sharma
Sraiyanti Haricharan
Solanki Chakraborty
Reshmi Sarkar
Sukhada Kshirsagar
Nitasha Kapahi
Durga Chitrak
Abheri De
Priyanka Singh
Anuradha Pathak
Nishi Dugar
Priya Seth
Fowzia Fathima
Neha Parti Matiyani
Dhawalika Singh
Krishna K R
Deepti Gupta
Gauri Chikhalikar
Uma Kumarapuram
Archana Borhade
Modhura Palit
Madhavy Rao
Damini Kaushik
Divyata Gogia
Archana Ghangrekar
Pooja Gupte
Akanksha Srivastav
Rangoli Agarwal
Armin Turel
Swati Jain
Kavya Sharma
Reya Kundu
Vandita Jain
Sunita Radia
Vatsala Goel
Pooja Sharma
Tania Mukhopadhyay
Malini Dasari
Shubhangi Singh
Armin Turel
Vidhi Bharadwaj
Sachi Shah
Sunayana Singh
Bindu Nair
Rachana Deshpande
Ishani Roy
Shelly Sharma
Sharanya Chander
Apoorva shaligram
Alima P Tigga