Scores of people attended a protest meeting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the Delhi University’s Arts Faculty on Thursday, which was addressed by social activists amid heavy police presence.
Among those who addressed the crowd were activist Medha Patkar, Tushar Gandhi, retired judge Kolse Patil, lawyer Karuna Nundy and journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani. With protesters standing through a spell of rain and continuing to raise slogans, speakers lauded them for their determination calling it a “people’s movement” and a fight to “save the Constitution”.
“Your movement would define the future,” said Mr. Patil, who attacked the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the RSS and the Sangh parivar. He urged students to read former RSS chief Golwalkar’s works to be able to attack it, to read author Rana Ayub’s “Gujrat Files” to learn about the Gujrat riots. More people must study social sciences and economics as opposed to mathematics and science, he said.
Ms. Nundy, who elaborated various issues with the CAA and the NRC, argued that it would cause trouble for all people without documentation and could lead to “never ending cycles” of inquiry. She attacked the ‘rumours’ being spread on how the NRC had not been started, highlighting that the exercise had already been written into the CAA. “I speak out against this Bill because as a lawyer I took a pledge to protect the Constitution,” said Ms. Nundy who read out the Preamble of the Constitution.
Ms. Patkar, who relayed stories from different parts of the country where atrocities had allegedly been committed, asked what was the fault of the people in Muzaffarnagar who weren’t participating in protests but were beaten up and whose houses were raided. She also alleged that there was deployment of “non-uniformed” people along with police forces in places such as the Aligarh Muslim University and the JNU to attack students. She called upon the students to continue their fight.
