Actor and activist Shabana Azmi was among those who joined the protestors at Jantar Mantar and says she saw “hope and anger” among them. “I and Javed saab (Javed Akhtar) wrote a letter directly to the prime minister appealing initiate a dialogue with the students. We got an acknowledgement” but nothing else, so she joined the protests.

In a podcast discussion with Sidharth Bhatia, Azmi said the students had insisted they wanted the protest to be peaceful. But “I saw the tear gas and then the lathi charge.” After that the students were “very angry.” She added, “We have a ruling party and the leaders always saying the youth are our biggest strength”. But, “They were not even ready to address any of these issues.” She said now the opposition parties must come together and work out a strategy and meanwhile the government has to rethink i ...