“Our children will ask us what we did to save the Constitution when it was being toyed with through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. So, the youth need to take to the streets and lead,” says Osama Shameem, a former student of Aligarh Muslim University.
Now a banker, Mr. Shameen along with a thousand youths, including students, took part in the first youth-led large-scale march in Bhopal against the Act and the proposed nationwide implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), on Sunday night.
‘Raising our voice’
“We’re here not just to oppose the Act, but raise our voice against hate crimes and police brutality inflicted on students across the country in an attempt to suppress dissent, which a right guaranteed to us by the Constitution,” says Aurangzeb Azam, a mechanical engineer, who coaches engineering aspirants.
Calling upon the Centre to make its stand clear on the NRC, Mr. Azam says, “The government is deliberately creating confusion. On the one hand, Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament the NRC will be implemented nationwide, on the other Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it wouldn’t. This assurance rings hollow and creates more confusion.”
Holding placards and the national flag, the protesters, under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee Against CAA and NRC, began the march from the Gauhar Mahal along the Upper Lake at 8 p.m. and culminated at the Taj-ul-Masajid mosque in the old city, where they staged a sit-in on the staircase at the entrance.
A former student of the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Hasan Qureshi, now a businessman, alleges that the Centre is making “concerted efforts” to lend the issue a communal tinge.
“Official documents state the National Population Register is the first step to the NRC, while the government maintains it hasn’t even discussed the NRC. Does Mr. Modi even know what’s going on in his government?” asks Mr. Qureshi.
On the unrelenting nature of protests across the country despite clampdown by authorites, Sana Azhar, a student of psychology, says, “If we stop raising our voice, the government will continue inflicting its unconstitutional policies on us. Therefore, the movement must continue.”
Echoing her, Mohsin Ali Khan, an organiser of the march, says the protests will continue until the Centre rolls back the “unconstitutional” law. “We’ll sit on roads, shut our businesses if required, until our demands are met. We are starting the youth-led protests from Bhopal, as it’s the State capital, and will take it to other cities,” he adds.
‘Equality guaranteed’
When the Constitution guarantees equality, he says, the government is attempting to “drive a wedge” between different communities. “Not just Muslims, people from several faiths are present at the protest. No one can break us,” he says. Stating that the protesters are inspired by freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, Ainul Yaqeem, a local student activist said, “Since the government is asleep, there is a need to wake it up. Not through violence, but student-led movements.”