Veteran Actor Naseeruddin Shah Stands with Sons at Jantar Mantar’s CJP Protest

On a muggy Monday evening, the iconic Naseeruddin Shah was spotted weaving through the throng at Jantar Mantar, flanked by his teenage boys, Imaad and Vivaan. The trio’s arrival coincided with the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) “Chalo Sansad” march, a protest that’s been gathering steam ever since students began a hunger strike over alleged NEET‑UG 2026 paper leaks.

It wasn’t a spur‑of‑the‑moment cameo. A few days earlier, the actor and his wife Ratna Pathak Shah had lent their voices to a joint statement alongside writer Arundhati Roy, economist Jayati Ghosh and a host of other public figures. The plea urged the hunger‑striking students to look after their health while maintaining pressure for exam reforms and accountability from Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

When the camera caught Naseeruddin standing silently beside the protesters, the message was clear – sometimes a quiet presence says more than a speech. He didn’t wave, didn’t address the crowd; he simply stood, observed, and let his reputation do the talking. Social media users quickly noted, “Sometimes, silence speaks louder,” attaching the tweet to a short clip of the actor with his sons.

The backdrop was anything but calm. Police lines were thick, batons and tear‑gas were reportedly deployed as some demonstrators tried to breach barricades and head toward Parliament. The CJP accused the police of using “excessive force,” a charge the Delhi Police brushed off, saying many of the online videos were misleading.

Amid the tussle, CJP representatives Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka managed a brief sit‑down with Union Minister JP Nadda. The minister described the meeting as “cordial,” urging the protesters to vacate the site, though no definitive promise was made.

Meanwhile, the hunger striker Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on an indefinite fast since June 28, asked fellow activist Abhijeet Dipke to end his own fast for health reasons. Dipke obliged, but the broader protest continued, now buoyed by the added star power of Naseeruddin and his kids – a move that joins the ranks of Shabana Azmi, Swara Bhasker, Prakash Raj and many others who have already voiced solidarity.

For the Shah family, the day was perhaps as much about being present as it was about politics. “I just wanted to be there for my sons, and to let them see what real civic engagement looks like,” a close friend later told reporters. Whether that will shift the tide of the protest remains to be seen, but the image of the legendary actor standing shoulder‑to‑shoulder with youthful activists will linger in the public imagination.