Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar said on Thursday that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizen (NRC) were not only anti-Muslim but also affected large sections of bahujan and adivasi communities who are Hindus.
Addressing a rally of over 1,000 people at Dadar, he asked, “Is this law against Muslims? It is. But it is also against 40% Hindus. If you don’t have land you don’t have proof.”
Mr. Ambedkar added that the CAA was ploy of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to retain power. “If you speak against them. Then you will be sent to the detention centre as no one in India has ‘proof’,” he said.
Attacking the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he said they ignored the several Adivasi and bahujan community and were turning the whole thing into an anti-Muslim issue. “Had they included these sections of society, we would not have had to protest separately,” he said.
Mr. Ambedkar said that the only communities who understood the meaning of detention centres were those who were declared as notified tribes by the British and were incarcerated for decades. “Entire generations have lived in such centres before being freed in 1952. What proof will they have,” he wanted to know. He added that 16% of Maharashtra’s population belonged to communities that came under the ‘notified tribes’ of the British.
Community leaders belonging to several tribal and bahujan communities such as Thirmali, Vanjari, Wadar and Pardi, spoke at the rally. Noted transgender leader Disha Pinky Shaikh said that despite transgender community getting a legal status, very few have voter ID cards. “We only got recognition in 2014, where we should get our papers,”
People from different communities and from several nomadic tribes attended the rally.
“I have grown up on the footpaths of Bhoiwada. I don’t have a ration card or a Aadhar card or a voter ID card,” said Baba Chavan fwho belongs to the Maryavali community.
Ashok Gujjeti of the Padmashali community said his forefathers had come to the city decades ago from Telangana. “I am the third generation from my family in this city. What proof would I have? There are around four lakh people from this community today in Mumbai,” he said.
