The ‘peaceful’ protest by Cockroach party and its supporters turned violent on 20 July 2026. Several celebrities including actors, activists, politicians appeared on the stage to show their ‘support’ for the protest. One prominent celebrity among them was Shabana Azmi. Is she really showing solidarity for the cause or is it something else? Let’s find out.
Shabana Azmi arrived at Jantar Mantar on 19 July 2026, standing in solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party’s youth protest and backing the movement of fasting activist Sonam Wangchuk. While Wangchuk himself had been forcibly hospitalised by Delhi Police earlier that morning, Azmi stood alongside CJP leaders to slam the Union Education Ministry over alleged structural corruption and competitive exam paper leaks, demanding strict institutional accountability.
She appeared even on 20 July 2026 ahead of the protest march.
VIDEO | Delhi: Ahead of the Cockroach Janata Party’s proposed protest march, veteran actress Shabana Azmi joined the protesters and says, “All of us who are here, have come for a peaceful protest, to exercise the right granted to us by our country’s constitution. Mahatma Gandhi… pic.twitter.com/q1mx2cL7gN
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 20, 2026
The protest turned violent on July 20 as protesters attempted to march toward Parliament. Police used baton charges and tear gas to disperse crowds, with multi-layered barricades sealing off central Delhi.
The CJP alleged that a truck carrying Shabana Azmi, Prakash Raj, Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali, and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke was “brutally attacked” by police. Over 170 people were reportedly injured, including more than 100 police personnel.
Now is her support genuine for the students cause or is it to express her anger over the upcoming FCRA Amendment Bill which will affect her NGO, ActionAid Association (India)?
The NGO Shabana Azmi Chairs
Azmi sits as Chairperson of the Governing Board of ActionAid Association (India).
On paper, it’s an entirely domestic entity – registered as a non-profit under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 (originally Section 25 of the 1956 Act), run by an Indian board, staffed by Indian citizens. That’s the legal picture.
The operational picture is different. ActionAid India signed a formal affiliation agreement making it a full member of ActionAid International, headquartered in Johannesburg and originally incorporated in the UK. It follows the global federation’s strategic charter while running its India-specific projects, and its funding pipeline flows down from ActionAid UK and ActionAid International.
The Money Trail & Christian Organization Label
An old Form FC-6 filing, the statutory return NGOs file with the Home Ministry to report foreign contributions under FCRA, shows ActionAid received ₹108.02 crore in foreign funding for the year ending March 2007. That filing labels the organisation under the “Religious (Christian)” denomination.
ActionAid’s own history traces its roots to a 1972 UK child-sponsorship charity with Christian origins, before it repositioned as a secular, rights-based global federation.
A separate, more recent audit, the Receipt and Payment Account for the Foreign Contribution Account, year ending March 2015, signed off by B S R & Company and Executive Director Sandeep Chachra, shows ₹87.13 crore in foreign contributions that year. Of that: ₹55.57 crore came in as restricted regular giving, ₹23.98 crore from restricted institutional donors, and ₹2.06 lakh in general donations. On the spending side, ₹48.58 crore went out to grassroots partner NGOs across India, ₹9.49 crore was spent directly on humanitarian projects, and ₹14.18 crore went to staff salaries, with smaller sums for rent and travel.
The global federation’s own funders, per the same filing, include the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the European Commission, UN agencies, and the governments of Denmark, Norway, Italy and Australia.
Alleged FCRA Violations
In April 2023, the Home Ministry directed the CBI to open a preliminary enquiry into four organisations over possible FCRA violations: the Centre for Equity Studies (run by activist Harsh Mander), Aman Biradari Trust, Oxfam India, and ActionAid Association. When the CBI upgraded that preliminary enquiry to a formal FIR in February 2024, it acted only against Harsh Mander and the Centre for Equity Studies, physically raiding two locations in Delhi tied to Mander. ActionAid was not raided. No FIR was ever registered against ActionAid or its board.
A Long Trail of Modi Criticism
Azmi’s appearance at Jantar Mantar fits a pattern going back over two decades. As a nominated Rajya Sabha MP in 2002, she called for Narendra Modi’s dismissal as Gujarat Chief Minister after the Godhra train burning and the riots that followed, visited relief camps in Ahmedabad, and told a Delhi press conference that the state administration was running a “Modi Massacre Machine.”
🚨 CRAZY! “Remove Modi” chants for last 24 years by the same faces🤯
In 2002, after the Gujarat riots, Shabana Azmi called for CM Modi’s removal in Parliament.
24 years later, She’s at the CJP protest site, once again opposing him 😭
In those same years, Modi went from CM to… pic.twitter.com/iO7myr3zqE
— The Analyzer (News Updates🗞️) (@Indian_Analyzer) July 20, 2026
On 6 April 2002, she co-signed a civil society declaration with Javed Akhtar and Farooque Shaikh, citing NHRC findings to argue Modi’s removal was both a moral and constitutional necessity.
She resurfaced in Modi-adjacent controversies repeatedly after he became Prime Minister:
Signing a 2014 pre-election appeal urging voters toward secular candidates;
Backing the 2015 “Award Wapsi” writers’ protests as legitimate dissent, even though she kept her own award;
Leading 2018 protests over the Kathua and Unnao cases and accusing the BJP leadership of shielding political affiliates;
Drawing national attention in 2019 for saying government critics get branded “anti-national”;
Opposing the CAA and NRC and criticising police action against students at Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University;
Publicly condemning the Gujarat government’s 2022 decision to release 11 men convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano.
Seen against that record, the Jantar Mantar appearance isn’t a departure for Azmi, it’s the same posture she has held since 2002, just with a new government initiative in the crosshairs and her own NGO’s old paperwork resurfacing as collateral.
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