Protests should be non-violent: Pankaj Tripathi on the Agnipath protests in the country

On Tuesday, Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi was in the national capital to promote his upcoming movie 'Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga' with filmmaker Srijit Mukherji. During the media event, the 45-year-old actor was asked to remark on the country's huge protests against the new military recruiting programme unveiled by the Central government last week.

The actor stated that people have the right to demonstrate in a democracy as long as they do it peacefully. According to the report from ETimes, Tripathi said,

"Everyone has the right to protest (andolan) and resist in a democracy (virodh). However, I believe that protests should be nonviolent and well-organized. If there is damage to the government's property during a demonstration, it signifies there is harm to the country's property... Everyone in our nation has the freedom to express themselves and demonstrate peacefully. That is exactly as it should be."

For the unversed, the Agnipath plan, unveiled on June 14, calls for the recruitment of young people aged 17 and a half to 21 for a four-year stay with the option of retaining 25% of them for another 15 years. Following violent demonstrations in some states against the plan, the Centre increased the maximum age restriction for recruitment this year to 23 years.

Talking about the actor's film it features him as a patriarch of a poor farmer family going through hardships. 'Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga' also stars Neeraj Kabi and Sayani Gupta. The film is scheduled to be released in theatres on June 24.