BENGALURU: A throng of nearly 3,000 people gathered on Sunday evening to express their angst over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, and declare that they would continue to fight peacefully against it.
Several personalities, including historian Ramachandra Guha, filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh, MP Rajeev Gowda, Congress spokesperson Brijesh Kalappa, news editor of The Siasat Daily Amer Ali Khan, MLA Sowmya Reddy, AICC member Kavitha Reddy, JDS spokesperson Tanveer Ahmed and others addressed the gathering at the Town Hall. Hundreds of people from the North-East were there to protest against it.
“CAB is discriminatory and we will fight it peacefully until it goes. This country was founded on diversity. People in Delhi want to impose one language and one religion, but we want democracy,” said Guha.
Congress MP Rajeev Gowda congratulated the people for coming forward to express their anger against “this black bill”. “I have returned from Delhi with a heavy heart. I tried to move an amendment in the Rajya Sabha which would have removed all negative aspects of the Bill, but it was passed. This does not mean we don’t stop this fight. It is a conflict of ideology -- one is to divide India based on religion, and the other to celebrate the diversity of India. Forces of division have sown hatred and are espousing a two-nation theory. This is the second freedom movement from the real ‘tukde tukde gang’. We will observe civil disobedience.”
Speaking to TNIE on the sidelines, Indraneel from Assam said, “We are protesting against CAB but our reasons are different from the pan-India protest. They are fighting against exclusion of Muslims, but we are fighting against inclusion of any immigrants, irrespective of religion. This revolution started in Assam in the 1970s, when we realised there was a massive influx of Bangladeshi immigrants. We have been protesting for at least six years. CAB violates the Assam Accord, which promises that illegal immigrants would be identified.”
Nishant Datta from Guwahati said, “Till 1971, we have taken in so many illegal immigrants from outside India that our resources are exhausted. We have to come to South India because we don’t have jobs back home. Flights and trains are cancelled, internet is banned since four days, like in Jammu and Kashmir. Eight people have been shot, including a 16-year-old. There is turmoil everywhere.”
Brijesh Kalappa said, “The government has been trying to incite us, whether it is with Article 370, triple talaq or now, CAA.”
“We are in solidarity with people of the North-East. It is our individual and collective responsibility to fight this Bill till the end,” said Amer Ali Khan.