00:00Dear Prime Minister, on the 5th of February I was taken to the police station by an Uber
00:04driver who overheard my conversation about anti-CAA protests.
00:10I was travelling from Juhu to Kurla where I was staying and on the way he asked me if
00:15he could withdraw some money from the ATM.
00:17I said yes and he came back with two policemen instead, who asked me what my name was, what
00:22I was doing in Bombay and why I was carrying a duffel bag.
00:25I was asked to step out of the car and as soon as I stepped out, the Uber driver pointed
00:30to the policeman and said that I must be thrown behind bars because I was talking about burning
00:36the country.
00:39When I challenged that and I said I didn't say anything on those lines, he said that
00:43he has a recording of that conversation and that I should be grateful that he got me to
00:47a police station and did not take me somewhere else.
00:50He threatened me in front of the cops, he threatened me with life in front of the cops
00:54and the cops did not do anything about that.
00:56When I was taken inside the police station, I was asked redundant and unnecessary questions
01:00like who are the people I read, what is my ideology and how much my father earns and
01:06how I sustain myself while protesting.
01:10After two and a half hours of questioning, I was let go and was given a piece of advice
01:16that I should not be wearing kurtas or red scarves and carrying a duffel.
01:22Later, BJP MLA, MP Lodha felicitated the Uber driver, giving him the Alert Citizen
01:31Award and this is where my concern starts.
01:35This makes me believe that we are living in a fascist state where civilians are rewarded
01:41and incentivised for turning anybody in who is anti-party.
01:47This is what happened in Germany, this is what happened in Spain and these are recurrent
01:52patterns in fascist regimes.
01:55We are no alien to the fact that the killers of Pehlu were garlanded, the rapists in the
02:01Katwa case were celebrated and now this.
02:06You are trying to create an atmosphere of fear and fear is the most dangerous kind of
02:12captivity and we refuse to be held captive in this country where you are growing trees
02:20of fear.
02:21We want oxygen but we don't have it.
02:25We can't be wearing masks all the time to save our faces from these facial recognition
02:30technology where we are profiled.
02:33A few weeks back you had said that people and these anti, these protesters can be identified
02:39by the clothes that they wear and I'll tell you that your narrative has trickled down
02:45to the masses and I know that's what you wanted.
02:48The Uber driver in a statement to the police said that he saw me in a kurta and a red scarf
02:52and a ruffly and he identified the kind of person I was.
02:57He thought there was definitely something fishy.
02:59Please don't do that.
03:01Please don't propagate a narrative that is so dangerous for the people, where people
03:06are profiled, where it trickles down to rape culture where somebody can one day say that
03:12you know a characterless woman can be identified by the clothes that she wears.
03:16Do not do that.
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