Even in the face of police brutality against anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters in Chennai’s Washermenpet, people are striving to save the secular fabric of the country, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
He was speaking at a public meeting against CAA here on Sunday, organised by the party in support of religious minorities who are protesting against the Centre’s CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).
Mr. Yechury said that all citizens must fervently take part in the nation-wide door-to door campaign against the CAA/ NRC/ NPR starting March 1 to 23. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have been calling us anti-national and accusing us of eyeing vote bank politics. However, it is they who are trying to consolidate a divided hardcore Hindutva vote bank and hurting India by spreading chaos and hate. We must work together to save India first from this large-scale conspiracy and then work towards building a better nation,” he said.
“Let Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah declare half of India as non-citizens as they defy answering questions as part of the NPR and refuse to show documents for the NRC. Let us see which India survives,” he said.
He added that Mr. Modi who is set to welcome U.S. President Donald Trump to Gujarat is taking him into a safe part of the country where they are not anticipating protests. “We will protest U.S. imperialism wherever he lands,” he said.
He added that Tamil Nadu had a rich tradition of standing up to unjust practices that threaten the country’s constitution.
“During the emergency, several members tried to evade arrests and fled to Tamil Nadu as emergency laws were not applicable here. Today, the people here must play the role again to save the country. Public must protest in larger numbers with more determination,” he said.
Senior party leaders, including U. Vasuki, N. Nanmaran, K.Kanakaraj, MP Su. Venkatesan, R. Vijayarajan and representatives of various organisations, including Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), took part in the meeting.
