‘Anti-CAA stir will continue after pandemic’

Shaheen Bagh dadi stresses the need to free students jailed for showing dissent

Bilkis, who is named as one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, being felicitated by activist Syeda Hamid at Press Club of India on Tuesday.

Bilkis, also known as Shaheen Bagh dadi, was felicitated by several women’s organisations on Tuesday after she was recognised by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the year.

The 82-year-old had become the face of the Shaheen Bagh protest, which began in December last year and saw hundreds of women take to the streets to raise their voice against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Speaking at the event on what her demands are under the current circumstances, Ms. Bilkis said: “The young students who are in jail need to be freed. I want them to be released from jails so that they can study further. If students are in jail then how will they study and what will be the country’s future?”

Adding that the movement against the citizenship law would continue after the pandemic, she added, “Right now fighting the novel coronavirus is of utmost importance. After that we shall take the CAA-NRC movement forward.”

“The government needs to listen to us as well as the concerns of farmers. There is poverty everywhere and people are famished. I will continue to raise my voice till the government listens. We are not here to step back,” said Ms. Bilkis.

Stating that the practice of “criminalising peaceful protests” should be ended, Annie Raja of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) said: “There were multiple protests across the city and the country, where women were sitting peacefully and protesting in a democratic manner. But the fascist conspiracy is to link the peaceful protests to the riots. We condemn that. We want to tell the government that this conspiracy will not be successful.”

‘Discrediting movement’

Delhi University professor Poonam Batra said: “Efforts have been made to delegitimise and discredit the movement. But in reality, we felt that real education was being imparted to the children who participated in the movement. What they were learning there could not be taught in schools. Shaheen Bagh became a space for education for children.”