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Mumbai, Dec 16: Condemning the police crackdown inside Jamia Millia university, several film industry insiders, including one from Hollywood, on Monday rallied behind the university's students and said the government is trying to stifle voices of dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Hollywood star John Cusack joined prominent names from the Hindi film fraternity, including director Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu, Konkona Sensharma and Sudhir Mishra, in expressing his anger over Sunday's violence inside the campus.

Thousands of students across India took to the streets demanding a probe into the use of teargas inside the Jamia library as well as police entering the campus without permission from university authorities on Sunday.

Jamia turned into a battlefield on Sunday as police entered the campus and used force to quell student protests against the Act.

Many on social media noted the usual silence of top stars, directors and producers in Bollywood but there were many who voiced their support for student protests.

"Serendipity" star Cusack also took note of the videos from inside the campus, which were circulated widely on social media.

"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 said in a series of tweets after first asking for the context of the protests.

Director Anurag Kashyap, who had left Twitter in August this year, returned to the social media platform to voice his anger over the way student protests were handled.

"This has gone too far... (I) can't stay silent any longer. This government is clearly fascist... and it makes me angry to see voices that can actually make a difference stay quiet...," he tweeted.

Actor Taapsee Pannu said the videos of police action inside the campus are heartbreaking.

"Wonder if this is a start or the end. Whatever it is, this is surely writing new rules of the land and those who don't fit in can very well see the consequences. This video breaks heart and hopes all together. Irreversible damage, and I'm not talking about just the life and property," she wrote on Twitter.

Director Sudhir Mishra recalled his 1987 film "Yeh Woh Manzil Toh Nahin" with student politics in the backdrop.

"Towards the climax, the police enter the campus and brutally beat up the students. Nothing has changed. Terrible that now we know where the flowers (have) gone. Crushed!"

"We are with the students! Shame on you @DelhiPolice," said actor-filmmaker Konkona Sensharma.

"Newton" star Rajkummar Rao condemned the police action against the students while appealing for peaceful protests.

"I strongly condemn the violence that the police have shown in dealing with the students. In a democracy, the citizens have the right to peacefully protest. I also condemn any kind of act of destruction of the public properties. Violence is not the solution for anything!" he wrote on Twitter.

In a pointed tweet, actor Sayani Gupta said, "On behalf of the students of Jamia & AMU request at least one of you to tweet or message Mr Modi condemning this act of police brutality and violence against students. The time has come to speak up guys. Yes? No? May be? @RanveerOfficial, @karanjohar, @ayushmannk, @RajkummarRao."

South star Siddharth tweeted, "These two are not Krishna and Arjuna. They are Shakuni and Duryodhana. Stop attacking #universities! Stop assaulting #students! #JamiaMilia #JamiaProtest."

Writer-comedian Varun Grover said history will take note of what happened in Jamia.

"Whatever may be next, but this fact will always be in history that some cunning people tried to divide this great country in the name of religion, the most sacred place of a university, tears and gas on the students studying in the library, sticks, and rained abuses. The present will blur, history will remain," Grover tweeted in Hindi.

Actor Ali Fazal said now was not the time to stay silent, irrespective of one's ideological divide.

"It's funny, I felt, hey Ali, let's play it safe all these years. And now I can't. A lot of my colleagues may not speak up at all. But I pray we all realise there is no job, no career above humanity. Socho, aur time kam hai toh act fast (Think, and if you have no time, then act fast). Irrespective of your political ideologies right now," he said.

Actor Swara Bhasker said she was shocked by what had happened.

"Why are students being treated like criminals? Why are hostels being tear gassed.. ??? What is going on #DelhiPolice ???? Shocking and shameful!"

Actors Richa Chadha and Vikrant Massey and directors Anubhav Sinha, Onir and Reema Kagti were also among those who voiced support for those protesting against the Act.

Superstar Akshay Kumar found himself in a row after he accidentally liked a tweet tagging a video showing students running away from police personnel.

He said he had accidentally liked the tweet which read, "Badhai Ho... Jamia me Azaadi mili hai."

"Regarding the 'like' on the tweet of Jamia Milia students, it was by mistake. I was scrolling and accidentally it must have been pressed and when I realised I immediately unliked it as in no way do I support such acts," Akshay said.

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New Delhi (PTI): Will she? Will she not? And on Saturday, she did. After years of frenzied speculation, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is finally entering the Lok Sabha after a resounding win from Wayanad with many a hope that she will re-energise her party and its dwindling electoral fortunes.

The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister. Four decades later, she joins as member herself -- her detractors crying nepo politics and her party supporters laying out the proverbial red carpet for a promise finally met.

She should have been a politician to the manner born given the Gandhi legacy. But Priyanka Gandhi took the long and winding way into mainstream politics. First were the questions of whether the mother of two would join active politics, and then whether and when she would contest elections.

In September 1999, she told a journalist her entry into politics may take a "long, long time". And it actually did. She took the plunge 20 years later in 2019 and was later appointed Congress general secretary.

Five years after that, Priyanka Gandhi begins her journey as an elected representative of the people.

With a winning margin of more than 4.1 lakh votes, she has surpassed the tally of her brother Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad in Kerala.

Priyanka Gandhi's entry into Parliament comes at a difficult time for the party, which has been jolted by electoral defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra. It would be interesting to see if she is able give a much-needed fillip to the grand old party and help put it back on electoral track.

Often drawing comparisons with her grandmother Indira Gandhi for their similarity in looks and way of speaking, Priyanka Gandhi has been the go-to campaigner for the party since her entry into active politics and even before that when she campaigned for her mother Sonia and brother Rahul.

And more than both, she is the one who many say has the easiest touch when it comes to communicating with people, individuals and crowds, and also in articulating the party's viewpoint on a range of issues. That she is often seen with her brother, sometimes teasing, sometimes chiding and always affectionate, has added to the image of the convivial politician.

Frequently referring to her childhood, the pain of her father Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and her mother's grief, she steered the Congress' campaign during the general election, adroitly walking the tightrope between striking a familial chord and discussing national-level issues. She proved to be a strategist, orator and mass mobiliser -- all rolled into one.

Most of her speeches are akin to a conversation with the crowd, establishing a connect and giving people the impression that here was a person who was known to them, someone sharing her feelings and thoughts with them.

As star campaigner and strategiser, Priyanka Gandhi helped the Congress make impressive gains in some states as well as in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in the year. Her campaign helped the Congress get 99 seats in the general election, up from 52 in 2019.

As the curtains came down on the 2024 general election, analysts totted up the numbers to highlight that she has proven to be the party's talisman. Priyanka Gandhi took part in 108 public meetings and roadshows. She campaigned in 16 states and a Union territory, and also addressed two party workers' conferences in Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

Priyanka Gandhi has often been projected as a possible challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and also as a successor to Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi in the family pocket borough of Rae Bareli.

Soon after the Election Commission announced the Wayanad bypoll, the Congress declared that Priyanka Gandhi would be its candidate from the seat in Kerala. Rahul Gandhi, it decided, would retain the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh and vacate the Wayanad seat he won for the second consecutive time.

After her name was announced for the Wayanad bypoll in June, Priyanka Gandhi said, "I am not nervous at all.... I am very happy to be able to represent Wayanad. All I will say is that I will not let them feel his (Rahul Gandhi's) absence. I will work hard and try my best to make everybody happy and be a good representative."

"I have a good relationship with Rae Bareli as I worked there for 20 years and that relationship will never break," she said, adding that both she and her brother will work together in both the constituencies.

Priyanka Gandhi was made Congress general secretary in-charge of the crucial eastern Uttar Pradesh region in January 2019 and then general secretary in-charge of the entire state.

In December 2023, Priyanka Gandhi was made Congress general secretary "without a portfolio". She helped strengthen the organisation and led the party's campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where the grand old party wrested power from the BJP.

Born on January 12, 1972, Priyanka attended New Delhi's Modern School and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, and also has a master's degree in Buddhist studies.

Priyanka Gandhi is married to businessman Robert Vadra. The couple has two children -- Raihan and Miraya.

Her entry into Parliament has been long awaited by party's workers and supporters and they are hoping she will provide the booster shot the party needs in its difficult phase at the hustings going forward.

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