Women protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Deoband on Thursday showered bangles on members of the peace committee formed by the district administration to reason with them to give up their protest.
The women are protesting against the CAA and the NRC at the Idgah Maidan in the communally sensitive town of Saharanpur district for the last 11 days.
Local sources said the women didn’t allow members of the committee, which included former MLA Mavia Ali and municipal corporation chairman Jamaluddin Ansari, to utter a single word and raised slogans against the CAA-NRC. “The women were furious that some of the members of the committee never showed up to support them during the protest. We shouted ‘go back’ and threw bangles at them. We will not vacate the place till the CAA is rolled back,” said Salma Ehsan of the Murtahida Khawatin Committee, the banner under which women are protesting.
Mr. Ali said they were pushed by the administration to convince the protesters to return home. “But we came during the day when the speeches were on. We will try to convince them during the night. It has been an unusually cold winter and many of them have fallen ill. I, personally, feel they should take a break and return after some days,” the Samajwadi Party leader told The Hindu.
He said this was also important because the BJP was using these protests to polarise the Delhi Assembly elections.
Describing the CAA as unconstitutional, Mr. Ali said the Prime Minister and the Home Minister should make a statement in Parliament that the NRC would never be implemented.
Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar P. said the administration was only trying to convince the protesters to go home after the government has said in Parliament that an all-India NRC was not being conducted.
‘Creating paranoia’
“There is no point in creating paranoia about something that is not intended by the government. They have registered their protest and they could return in future if they find that the government has gone back on its promise,” said Mr. Kumar.
