New Delhi: A line-up of star Indian comedians performed at a charity show in Mumbai on Thursday to express their solidarity with nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens.The proceeds of the event will go to the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which works on digital rights and liberty.“Amshula Prakash (a lawyer) and I decided to put this show up and Abhishek Oswal from Only Much Louder helped us execute the logistics,” comedian Kaneez Surka, one of the organisers, told The Wire. “We wanted to show our solidarity as a community against the injustices prevailing in the country right now. We thought the best way to do that was to do what we do best – comedy – and collect funds that can help people who are out there fighting for the cause.”The line up included Surka, Kanan Gill, Urooj Ashfaq, Kunal Kamra, Tanmay Bhat, Prashasti Singh and Biswa Kalyan Rath, among others, and the show was hosted by Rohan Joshi, formerly of AIB. The show was sold out a day before the event, Mumbai Mirror reported. Joshi told the newspaper that for him, the event was about “standing up for our values”, above and beyond commercial interests.Also read: At Shaheen Bagh, Muslim Women Take Their Place as Heroes of the MovementThe performances at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra weren’t focused on current events, the humour was wide-ranging.“I did a joke about how I feel bad for anyone who’s yelling ‘Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maro salon ko’, because they’re trying to tell us that they’re suicidal,” Tanmay Bhat told The Wire. “It’s a call for help, guys, we must feel bad for them.”The event took place at a time when one of the performers – Kunal Kamra – has been in the headlines. Kamra was banned from flying on multiple airlines after the posted a video of himself confronting and “heckling” Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami onboard a flight to Lucknow. None other than civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri swooped in to ask airlines to punish the comedian, though it is unclear under which rules. The pilot of the plane has said that the action against Kamra is unwarranted.“The comedy community (in India) is small and even vulnerable, but we have our moral compass, and we would love to live by it,” comedian Varun Grover – whose poem ‘Hum Kaagaz Nahi Dikhaenge’ has become one of the protest anthems – told Mumbai Mirror.“The vindictiveness of the government is in full and obscene display here and Kamra is still responding with a sense of humour; sharing memes and thanking airlines.” Grover said to the newspaper. “And that I think is heartening — the whole world gets to see that the peace-loving, full of yoga-calmness India that they know about, is not represented by its establishment, but by its artists.”