CAA: I am a Hindu and I am ashamed, says Rasika Agashe at Park Circus 

Theatre director and actor Rasika Agashe while addressing the women protesting the Citizenship Act at Park Circus Maidan that she is a Hindu and she is ashamed that members of a community have to go through such pain to demand the rights of a citizen.

Agashe is married to film actor Zeeshan Ayyub. She said, India had changed in the 12 years since she married a young actor in Delhi in 2007.

According to a report in Telegraph, Rasika said, “Main Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub ki biwi hoon. Main Hindu hoon. Aur ek kavita hain: ‘Main Hindu hoon aur sharminda hoon’. Main yahan par yeh bilkul kahna chahungi ke ek Hindu rashtra mein, Hindu rashtra jise kaha ja raha hain, us mein hum jaise Hindu sharminda hain ke yahan par aise baithna pad raha hain sirf ek dharm ke logon ko (I am the wife of Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub. I am a Hindu. And there is this poem: ‘I am Hindu and I am ashamed’. I want to say that here in this Hindu Rashtra, what is now being called Hindu Rashtra, we the Hindus are ashamed of the fact that the people of a particular religious community are having to sit like this).”

“‘Main Hindu hoon aur sharminda hoon’ is the first line of a poem against fanaticism written by Rajesh Joshi. I could not think of any other line after I met the courageous ladies,” later she said as reported by Telegraph.

“Aap akele nahin ho, hum sab saath main hai yahan par (You are not alone, we are all together with you here).”

The protest led by women against the Citizenship Act and National Register of Citizens had began on January 7.

Rasika also said, “Ab tak hum yeh kehte the sena wahan pe khari hain, is liye Hindustan araam ki neend sota hain. Main kehti hoon desh mein har jagah pe aap log is tarah se baithe hue hain, is liye secular Bharat chain ki neend le sakta hain (So far we would say that the country can sleep in peace because the army is standing guard there; but now I’d say because you are sitting like this across the country, secular India can sleep in peace).”

“This is not the India where I had married Zeeshan Ayyub, without bothering to know what community he came from. I know the Narendra Modi government still has four-and-a-half years left. But I think we will live longer than that and will keep fighting.”

Agashe is an alumnus of National School of Drama and a graduate from Fergusson College. She played Rabia in the film Mere Pyare Prime Minister.