MUMBAI: Mumbai saw thousands of its citizens from diverse backgrounds protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Thursday. .
The venue selected was August Kranti Maidaan -the very spot from where Mahatma Gandhi had given the call to “Quit India” to the British government in August , 1942.
“Mumbai accepts everything but not this time. Imagine the city has come out to protest on a weekday. Feels good to see that we are not alone,” said Angela Panat a 42 year old working in the corporate sector .
Musicians strummed along while social activists , NGOs, students and citizens from India Inc gathered to protest against CAA.
Students who formed a major chunk displayed posters and carried posters on Kashmir, Assam besides raising voices against the Bill.
“We have been watching everything on social media. Instagram has helped us get direct information from Jamia and other universities. Social media is helping us in getting together. If they shut internet, we will find some other way. This fight will not stop,” said a studnet from SNDT college .
Lines from Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poems and quotes of freedom fighters were mentioned reiterated.
” This is not reservation , this is discrimination and we have come to fight against such orders,” said Anvita Bath who had come along with her friend Sana (name changed).
The latter’s family is dedicated to the armed forces for the last three generations and was perturbed by the violence against students.
“Why should we have to give a proof that we belong to this country, we shouldn’t have to. We also voted for this govt, but not for this. I hope Modi-Shah read the constitution that looks at all it’s as equals. This issue has United India” Shibna, 19 year old from a college in Maharashtra.
There was also bonhomie amongst the protesters and police as well and many were seen clearing the litter left behind and thanking the cops.
On December 19, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court issued notices to the government seeking its views on multiple challenges made on the Constitutional validity of the freshly enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which grants fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who fled to India due to religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The government will have to place its views in the second week of January 2020. The Act was notified in the gazette on December 12, 2019, but it carries no date from when the Act would come into force. This will be notified by a subsequent notification, the gazette said.
Source: Economic Times
