Communist Party of India leader and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Friday said if the government does not consider a section of the population to be citizens of the country then the citizens will not accept the government.
Mr. Kumar was in Mumbai to attend a protest at the YMCA ground in Agripada, which was organised by the Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association, Maharashtra, in collaboration with Chhatra Bharati. Over 20,000 people took part in the protest, which began at 4 p.m. To thunderous applause from the crowd, Mr. Kumar said, “The current fascist regime is following in the footsteps of the British with its policy of divide and rule. They claim to have broken the back of terrorism, but I think that just because there is no terrorism left, the ruling party is using the police to spread terrorism. If you do not consider us citizens then we do not consider you as our government.”
Mr. Kumar said while people are raising concern over unemployment and the lack of women’s safety, the government is using the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to distract them from the real problems in the country.
“According to the Prime Minister, Smriti Irani is the true definition of women empowerment, but the true faces of women empowerment are Fatima Sheikh and Savitribai Phule,” he said.
Richa Singh, former president of the Allahabad University Student’s Union, and Padma Shri awardee Ganesh Devy were among the speakers at the protest.
Mr. Devy recalled how the ‘Quit India’ slogan was raised in Mumbai for the first time, and said it is now time to raise a new slogan: ‘Fix India’. “All of us should start a civil disobedience movement, where we stick a letter on our doors saying that no inquiry related to CAA or NRC will be entertained,” Mr. Devy said.
Ms. Singh said, “We will not show our documents to the Prime Minister. Instead, we would like to see a report card of what he has done.”
