Actor and activist Prakash Raj on Friday backed calls for regime change but said it must come through elections and constitutional means, contrasting India with Bangladesh and Nepal, where mass protests ousted governments in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
“We want the regime down, and we will bring it down democratically in this country,” Raj said, outlining an electoral fight from Uttar Pradesh to the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
“We are not Nepal. We are not Bangladesh. We have Ambedkar. We have Gandhi. We have Bhagat Singh. We have a Constitution. We have a right to vote,” he added.
His remarks came after Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained ahead of a proposed Tiranga march in Delhi on Friday.
The outfit has been protesting against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Raj accused the Centre of using force to silence protesters and said its refusal to engage had fuelled demands for its removal. “You have pushed us because you are not talking to us. You’re using force,” he said.
Rejecting suggestions that peaceful protests and calls for electoral change amounted to anarchy, he said citizens were exercising their constitutional rights to question, demonstrate and vote.
“We are not armed. We are armed with the Constitution. We are armed with the right to protest,” he said.
Raj also questioned the detentions ahead of the Tiranga march on Friday, invoking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign encouraging people to display the national flag.
“I’m asking Modiji, what happened to your Har Ghar Tiranga nara?” he said. “The youth of this country want to walk with the Tiranga.”
He alleged police violence against protesters, including women, and urged opposition parties to raise the issue in Parliament during the Winter Session. Citizens, he said, would continue peaceful street protests.
Raj pointed to support from farmers, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and civil society groups, saying the next phase of the protests would bring larger crowds to the streets.
- Ends