New Delhi: As the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and a proposed countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC) entered its eighth day Monday at Jamia Millia Islamia, the agitating students said they were not convinced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurances on NRC and CAA. Students from several schools in Noornagar, Batla House and Okhla also attended the protests.
Advocate Nadeem Khan, while addressing protestors, said that while the prime minister says there has not been any discussion on NRC, Union Home Minister Amit Shah states the NRC will be applied across the country.
“I think they are at loggerheads on NRC. There are no political parties behind these protests. This is a citizens’ movement that has gained momentum due to the injustice of the duo,” claimed Khan.
Maskoor Ahmed Usmani, former president of AMUSU, said, “This is not a protest, now it has become an uprising. This country has only one religion and that is secularism. The PM and the home minister of this country are scared and therefore they have cancelled rallies, visits of foreign delegations and engaged police forces violently. The PM spoke for 50 minutes on CAA during his poll rally when he chooses to remain mum on burning issues of the country.”
The students questioned that if all minorities are ‘outsiders’ and ‘illegal migrants’” then how many detention centres will they (government) build and feed crores of minorities at those centres.
Gauhati High Court Advocate AA Tapadar told students, “I am coming from Assam and I know what NRC is. My state has seen the practice of NRC and struggle of this law. Citizens in Assam have been struggling since 1970s over this issue. We are fighting in the Supreme Court against that and when one case is already going on how could the home minister up with a new law? The PM lied that there are no detention centres in this country, whereas Assam has detention centres all across the state.”
The students said that Prime Minister Modi has developed a ‘sudden love’ for police forces.
Ashish Jha, a JMI student, said, “This government didn’t lodge a single case when police was beaten up at courts a month back in Delhi. The policemen were sent off free without any action. They had no love for policemen then. Now, when police have thrashed students at Jamia, AMU and other varsities, they are calling them ‘shaheed’ (martyrs). What about students and others who died in Uttar Pradesh?”
PTI
