No citizen of the country will be allowed to be sent to detention camps in the name of citizenship, Bhim Army chief Chandrasekhar Azad has said.
He was addressing a march of citizens to Raj Bhavan organised by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) here on Saturday. He said the peaceful struggle against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would continue until these black laws are repealed.
“The beauty of this land is its unity despite its diverse languages and religions. I don’t understand the language of Kerala, but be it Uttarakhand or Himachal or some other place in a corner of the country, our demand is the same, that we want freedom from such black laws. In a democratic country like ours, only what the public wish should be allowed to happen. However, if someone has a mistaken view that the country should be run according to the whims of those at the RSS’s Nagpur headquarters, let that stand corrected. As long as Ambedkar’s Constitution exists, they will not be able to anything,” said Mr.Azad.
Call to remain vigilant
He exhorted the protesters to remain vigilant as the BJP government will do everything to break the protest.
“The people of this country appointed a ‘chowkidar’ (gatekeeper) to guard us. Now, that ‘chowkidar’ is asking the owners to produce proof of their citizenship. But the one good thing this government has done is that the people have all awoken due to their actions.
Now, the government is clearly scared. They will now make attempts to break our struggle. We should remain vigilant, as peaceful struggle is our biggest strength,” he said.
Mr. Azad began the speech by reading out the preamble of the Indian Constitution to the crowd.
SDPI president M.K. Faizi said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah who boasted that he would never go back from implementing the CAA would have to eventually bow down to strong protests.
The citizens’ march began from Gandhi Park at East Fort in the afternoon and concluded in front of Raj Bhavan.
