“BJP’s A team at work to harass, intimidate & silence those who don’t fall in line,” said advocate Prashant Kishor on Twitter after the Income Tax Department said they are conducting raids at the premises of actor Taapsee Pannu and director Anurag Kashyap, who are vocal critics of the central government. The raids are linked to the director-actor duo promoted Phantom Films and talent hunt company in Mumbai, reports PTI. 

Taapsee and Kashyap have often been in news for their views on current issues such as the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the JNU protest, and the ongoing farmers’ protests against the centre’s three new farm laws.

When India was witnessing widespread protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019-20, Kashyap has tweeted, “The CAA/CAB is not going anywhere. It is impossible for them to take it back because, for them, that would mean defeat. This government views everything in terms of victory and defeat. Such is their ego that even if everything gets burned to ashes, Modi can never be wrong. Because illiterate people are like that.”

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Taking to Twitter, Bhushan said, “Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, Actor Taapsee Pannu Face Income Tax Raids. BJP’S A team at work to harass, intimidate & silence those who don’t fall in line. India has never seen such malafide use of IT dept, ED, NIA, police etc.” 

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav also reacted to the raids, saying, They first employed IT, CBI, ED to conduct raids on vocal & upright political rivals for their character assassination.

Now Nazi govt is chasing social activists, journalists & artists to threaten them against calling spade a spade.

Condemnable Act! @taapsee @anuragkashyap72.”

Here’s how Twitter reacted to the raids:

Just a few days back, Kashyap had called PM Modi an ‘Urban Nazi’ on Twitter. The ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ director has criticised the government on several occasions as he even changed his profile picture to masked PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on Twitter during Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) violence that involved masked mob entering the campus and thrashed students and teachers.

Meanwhile, Taapsee has also spoken against CAA, farmers protest and frequently got into Twitter spats with actor Kangana Ranaut.

The actor tweeted about how not to become a propaganda teacher for others, saying, “If one tweet rattles your unity, one joke rattles your faith or one show rattles your religious belief then it’s you who has to work on strengthening your value system not become ‘propaganda teacher’ for others.”