Multiple civil society groups, social organisations, human rights platforms and cultural bodies have planned a demonstration on Saturday under a common slogan. There will be posters and banners urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi “to go back.” An elaborate civil disobedience movement, branded as “no NRC, no NPR, no CAA campaign,” has been planned. Mr. Modi is expected to attend four programmes in the city over the weekend.
From early Saturday morning, the groups — organised mainly by a joint anti-citizenship law platform — will mobilise people from the city and suburbs to march to two points.
At Kaikhali traffic crossing near the airport, the objective will be to stop the Prime Minister from entering the city, the organisers said. However, it is not yet clear if Mr. Modi will be flown into the city from the airport in the Army’s copters or driven by road all the way to his first programme venue in Dalhousie Square. He is expected to visit Belur Math founded by Swami Vivekananda on Saturday evening.
The anti-NRC groups will also assemble near the Raj Bhavan in the city’s central area and the organisers have appealed to the activists to participate without any flags. “We appeal to participants to carry only the national flag and not the flag of any political party,” said Prasenjit Bose, a key organiser.
Meanwhile, protests continued in parts of the city on Thursday. At one of the anti-NRC, CAA programmes, research scholars of various universities and independent institutes demanded “creation of awareness to examine the connection of government exercises [like the NRC and the CAA] with the day-to-day issues” of the people. The group, Democratic Research Scholars’ Organisation, said more than 100 scholar representative participated in the programme. In the city’s central Park Circus area, more than 500 people, mostly elderly Muslim women, resorted to a sit-in demonstration. Student groups also participated in the protests that have been continuing for the last three days.
“It is not just a demonstration by Muslim women. All other communities, particularly from the majority community, have gathered here,” said a political science student of Rabindra Bharati University. Scores of national flags were on display in the Park Circus ground venue, described by the media as “Kolkata's Shaheen Bagh.”
