Amid violent agitation against the amended Citizenship Act in West Bengal, eminent filmmaker Aparna Sen and other Bengali intellectuals on Saturday said vandalising public property is not the right path to register protests.
A movement at times takes extreme proportions when people get carried away, but this is not the right way to protest, said Sen.
The protests against the amended Act took has taken a violent turn in West Bengal with groups of people setting on fire railway properties at several stations and torching buses on national highways.
"We should not set ablaze our own properties to air grievances against some decisions of the Centre. There is a need to protest, but not in this way," Sen said.
A group of intellectuals - considered close to the ruling Trinamool Congress - also called upon the agitators not to resort to violence and destruction of public property to register their protest against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the amended Citizenship Bill.
At a media conference here, painter Subhaprasanna, poets Joy Goswami and Subodh Sarkar, Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri urged everyone to protest against the NRC and the amended Citizenship Act, but in a democratic way.
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"Please don't strengthen the hands of those who want to create division in the society. Please don't fall prey to the gameplan of certain forces who want to reap political dividend out of the situation," Goswami said.
The personalities called upon the agitating groups to have faith in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Theatre activist Rudraprasad Sengupta and Kaushik Sen, and authors Sirshendu Mukhopadhayay and Abul Bashar earlier had also appealed for peace on Thursday.