Hundreds stage dharna against CAA, NRC in Kalaburagi

Activists protesting in Kalaburagi on Monday.

Condemning the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), hundreds of activists, under the banner of Karnataka Rajya Dalita Sangharsha Samithi (KRDSS), staged a dharna near the district administrative complex here on Monday. They alleged that the CAA and NRC had been designed to isolate deprived communities and make them develop a sense of Statelessness and landlessness in their own homeland.

“The intention of NRC is to isolate Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, nomadic tribes and other downtrodden communities that have already been marginalised and suppressed and make them feel a sense of Statelessness. India is their homeland. Most of them have no documents to prove their nationality. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are going to make them illegal immigrants in one stroke by implementing the NRC,” Suresh Hadimani, district convenor of the organisation, said.

Terming the CAA, which excludes Muslims from its ambit, as communal, Mr. Hadimani said it would work diagonally opposite to the secularism enshrined in the Constitution. “India is reeling under a severe economic crisis. The slowdown has hit all the sectors including the job market. Hit by the slowdown, more and more factories and business establishments are closing down each day and thousands of people are joining the army of unemployed. Mr. Modi’s promise of 2 crore jobs a year turned out to be a hoax. In order to conceal their failures, the Modi-Shah duo has come up with CAA-NRC exercise to divert the attention of the masses,” he said.

Referring to the ongoing massive rallies and agitations against the CAA and NRC across the country, Krishnapa Karinika, another leader, said the Centre was insensitive to people’s woes.

“People have massively taken to streets against NRC and CAA. Each and every city and town in the country has witnessed more than one massive mobilisation. The agitations are going on till date. Yet, the Union government is not heeding to the people’s voices,” he said.

They submitted a memorandum, addressed to the President, to the DC’s office demanding the repeal of CAA and dropping the proposed NRC.