New Delhi: Students, doctors and artists were among the scores of people who gathered at Central Park in Delhi’s Connaught Place to protest against the amended citizenship law and the proposed all-India National Register of Citizens.
Several AIIMS doctors wearing stethoscope around their neck also assembled at the site where the protesters sang patriotic songs and recited poems.
Organised by a newly-formed group called ‘Delhiites For Constitution’, several protesters held up placards with catchy slogans like: ‘My name is Khan and I am an Indian’, ‘It is so bad that even engineers are here’, ‘Make India Democratic Again’, and ‘Darr ke Aage Peace hai’ (Before fear there is peace).
Ajay Verma, psychiatrist at AIIMS, sang songs against the contentious law amid loud cheers and applause by the students.
“It is going to be a long battle. People hurt in protest were not given timely treatment. We have arranged ambulance to provide immediate medical aid to people,” Verma told reporters.
Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Jayati Ghosh thanked the youth of the country for starting the movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the NRC, saying ‘you gave us hope’.
“’Kashmir wali normalcy’ is spreading and we want freedom from that normalcy,” Ghosh said. “We should not stop now we need to go forward.”
Rashmi from Venkateshwara college said there was a need to bring back narrative to real issues like employment and whether ordnance factories would remain as public sector or not. “These are the questions we should ask, not the CAA being thrown at us,” she said.
Meanwhile in another part of the national capital holding a placard which said ‘when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty’, 22-year-old Khalida nervously heard the speakers at a meeting.
Khalida was among the hundreds of people who gathered at the Musafir Khana Park in Nizamuddin Basti to hear what could be the impact of the CAA and the NRC.
“We will follow the path of Mahatma Gandhi. We will never use violence, but will peacefully oppose the CAA and NRC and give reply of love with hate,” the college student said.
Among those explaining the implications of the CAA was former JNU student and activist Umar Khalid, who said the most important fight right now was to save the country.
“No one can scare the people of India. I salute all the people out on the streets,” Khalid said. “How do we prove our loyalty to our own country? The Indian Muslims are not accidental Muslims, but are Indian Muslims by choice. It is the attempt of the government to distract people from economic issues. NRC and CAA is anti-Indian and we reject it,” added Khalid.
Amid heavy police deployment who stood outside the location of the meeting, there were many who said ‘we oppose this legislation not as a Hindu or Muslim but as an Indian’.
Waving the national flag, scores of people held placards carrying couplets and catchy messages like ‘bure din wapis de do’ (give back bad days), ‘Rebel with a cause – reject CAA’ and ‘Digital India without Internet – Shame’.
PTI