‘I was raised to raise my voice,’ says Rhiya Ahir who stopped a police van with CJP protesters in Mumbai

Rhiya Ahir, 27, has been acting, on stage and before cameras, ever since she was four-and-a-half years old. Earlier this week, the professional model and actress pulled off perhaps her most dramatic performance, albeit on a different platform. Wearing a hoodie and a cap on a rainy Mumbai afternoon, she stood defiantly in front of a police van filled with young agitators protesting against the NEET paper leak and the distress it wrought on the students around the country, organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP).

The sensational David-versus-Goliath act, caught on hundreds of mobile cameras, quickly became one of the defining moments of the nationwide ‘Cockroach movement’, instantly drawing comparisons with the lone man blocking military tanks near Tiananmen Square in China.

The poetic nature of the picture-perfect moment isn’t lost on Ahir. “Until now, my only ‘act’ was that of acting, and not activism. I did theatre for 13 years of my life. So, I know how to command the frame. I know my presence on stage. Probably that's what manifested as me standing my ground the day before at Shivaji Park,” she told Careers360.

CJP Protest: At the police van, ‘an out-of-body’ experience

She described it as an ‘out-of-body’ experience that didn’t feel particularly extraordinary at that moment. “It's not something that required a lot of willpower. People really expect me to say, ‘Hey, I was scared,’ but I wasn't scared. That's me as a person. That's the way I was raised, to raise my voice,” she says in a matter-of-fact tone.

So, with no background in activism, what propelled Ahir to this agitation? The betrayal and helplessness that many of her fellow activists feel at being ignored by the powers that be. “Time and time again, the system has betrayed us. The education system has betrayed the students. The lives that were lost are a tragedy that has unfolded before the nation's and the world's eyes. And the students have to come for justice,” she said.

She points out that the NEET paper leak isn’t an isolated incident, but rather part of a recurring pattern of failures. “So that means we have to hold the system accountable because they clearly don't think they're doing anything wrong. So that is what inspired people to come together this time,” she said.

Also read ‘Took first train’: Delhi Police action, not paper leaks, drives hundreds more to CJP protest at Jantar Mantar

Police ‘sleeping on their Singham moment’

With the protests morphing into a larger movement, even a cultural phenomenon, shaped by thousands of Instagram meme videos, Ahir feels that the police, instead of resorting to violence and brutality, should place itself on “the right side of history”. The police, according to her, should stand alongside the lawyers providing pro bono services and medicos offering healthcare to protesters. “I really feel that they're sleeping on their Singham moment,” she quips.

Even if her actions are being seen as a form of resistance to the authority, Ahir doesn’t view them as necessarily ‘against the establishment’. “When I did that, I wasn't thinking I'm going against the police, but it was me thinking I am standing up for the right thing. So, adding a positive connotation to it instantly amplifies the effect that it's going to have,” she said.

The actress, with a significant web following that has only grown in the past couple of days, doesn’t want the youngsters, including those with notable social media presence, to wait for the perfectly Instagrammable aesthetics to raise their voices. “I am using my platform and putting myself forward out there, even if people are abusing me and accusing me of different things,” she said.

Finally, she has a message for the politicians, particularly the prime minister Narendra Modi.

“Yesterday our prime minister released a beautiful video saying that he is going to take charge and he is going to do this and that. But are you actually doing it, is the question. So, I actually want to see some resolutions and solutions to the entire problem. Not just words, but also actions and successful implementation,” she concludes.

The CJP leaders met the government representatives today in Delhi. Following the meeting, Ashutosh Ranka, one of the spokespersons, said the government has sought more time to decide the fate of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, whose resignation is one of the key demands of the protestors. The agitation continues.