The Sunday Standard

Mothers’ fight over Citizenship Act at 'Kolkata’s Shaheen Bagh'

Pranab Mandal

NEW DELHI: Drawing inspiration from Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, hundreds of women have been staging demonstration round-the-clock at Park Circus Maidan here since Tuesday to oppose the CAA, NRC, NPR. They have decided to continue the sit-in until the Centre scraps the law and the decision to conduct NRC and NPR. 

Their numbers are growing day-by-day as students from universities and colleges are joining them and chanting slogans of ‘azadi’. 

The pillars of the campaign tagged ‘Kolkata’s Shaheen Bagh’, are mothers and grandmothers from the minority community, mostly homemakers. “If our children will ask us how could we let our country be destroyed in the name of religion, what will we answer? I have a daughter and if I don’t protest, she could be the next target,’’ said Asmat Jamil.

The husbands of Asmat and other women have stood by their mothers, daughters and wives and have been taking care of household works.

Among the agitating women are Quaiser Hasan, 72, and Noorjahan Shakil, 80. “We have a glorious history of living together with harmony. We will not allow a political party to divide us due to vote-bank politics,” said Shakil.

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