In the past few weeks, there have been widespread protests by industrial workers in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and many parts of Delhi NCR around their legitimate demands regarding work conditions and wages. While discontent among workers has been simmering for a long time, the recent spike in inflation and shortage of cooking gas due to the US-Israel war on Iran has pushed matters to a head. It appears that the replacement of long-standing labour laws with the new Labour Codes has also led to a feeling of discontent among workers.

Instead of dealing sympathetically with workers and their representatives, the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi have responded with severe repression. Numerous reports of police violence, illegal detentions, arrests without proper procedures being followed, and denial of basic facilities to those arrested including access to families and legal aid have appeared in the media and on social media. National leaders of political parties, members of parliament, trade union leaders and eminent citizens have been prevented from even visiting the sites of workers’ protests. The Right-wing propaganda machinery has sprung into action, vilifying the protestors as ‘urban Naxals’ and ‘anti-national’.

We are deeply disturbed by these reports. To protest against unbearable working and living conditions is the right of any citizen of this country. This right in conferred by the Constitution of India and does not depend on the largesse of this or that political dispensation. Democracy is strengthened when citizens can air their grievances without fear, when they can protest peacefully without being subjected to violence, when their actions are not vilified and criminalized.

While expressing our solidarity with the just demands and struggles of workers, we demand that the central government, and the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi:

• Engage with the workers sympathetically and not treat the protests as a ‘law and order’ issue.
• Immediately release all workers, their leaders, artists and intellectuals who have been arrested in connection with these protests.
• Set up a fair and binding mechanism via which workers and their representatives can negotiate with the authorities around their demands.

Endorsed by

• A. Mangai, theatreperson
• Abhishek Majumdar, playwright and director
• Anand Patwardhan, filmmaker
• Danish Husain, actor
• Githa Hariharan, novelist
• K. Satchidanandan, poet
• M.K. Raina, theatre director
• Malini Bhattacharya, playwright
• Mallika Sarabhai, dancer
• Moloyashree Hashmi, actor
• Mridula Garg, writer
• Nandini Sundar, Sociologist
• Naseeruddin Shah, actor
• Pallavi M.D., musician
• Pralayan, theatremaker
• Praveen K.P., artist and theatremaker
• Preethi Athreya, dancer
• Rahul Ram, musician
• Ratna Pathak Shah, actor
• Sudhanva Deshpande, actor and publisher
• Sunil Shanbag, theatre director
• T.M. Krishna, musician and author
• Vikram Iyengar, dancer
• Vinutha Mallya, editor

[Featured photo: Police lathicharging protesting workers in Noida on April 13, 2026 | PTI/Frontline]