Content for discontented: This is how western artists, celebrities are reacting to CAA

American actor John Cusack has been keeping a hawk-eye on the CAA protests since December of last year, tweeting out his concern over the increasing violence.
The Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode on February 23 was about “divisive policies being adopted by the Modi government”
The Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode on February 23 was about “divisive policies being adopted by the Modi government”

NEW DELHI:  Thank goodness for YouTube. After Indian OTT platform Hotstar pulled the latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in which the British-American comedian eviscerates the Citizen (Amendment) Act and draws attention to the “divisive policies being adopted by the Modi government”, people have been flocking to YouTube to watch the show.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters recited Aamir Aziz’s poem on February 22 against
the CAA, while protesting Wikileaks’ Julian Assange’s arrest

Coming out just a few hours prior to US President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India (the show airs on late Sunday night in US time, which is Monday morning here), Oliver doesn’t mince his criticism of PM Narendra Modi and his government, and ends the episode saying, “Because India, home of this enduring symbol of love [Taj Mahal], frankly deserves a lot more than this temporary symbol of hate [Modi].”Oliver isn’t the only celebrity from the West who has criticised the CAA.

As mob violence in Delhi continues to seethe, and the death toll climbs, far away in London, Roger Waters, founder of iconoclastic progressive rock band Pink Floyd, recited a poem by poet and Jamia Milia Islamia student Aamir Aziz. The guitarist was protesting against the extradition of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange in the British capital when he read out Aziz’s words:

“Kill us, we will become ghosts, and write of your killings, with all the evidence. You write jokes in court, we will write ‘justice’ on the walls. We will speak so loudly that even the deaf will hear, we will write so clearly that even the blind will read. You write injustice on earth, we will write revolution in the sky.
Everything will be remembered, everything recorded.”

American actor John Cusack has been keeping a hawk-eye on the CAA protests since December of last year, tweeting out his concern over the increasing violence. “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,” he tweeted on December 16.

He also condemned the mob violence in a tweet yesterday. Meanwhile, the John Oliver episode has since been watched by millions on the show’s official YouTube channel. Violence, after all, is seldom met with silence.

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