BENGALURU: As many as 40 youngsters gathered at Cubbon Park on Sunday to express their opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and violence against students, under the banner of the All India Human Rights Cypher, by rapping.
“Our main objective was to rap to express our opposition to the current political situation in the nation. Altogether, 15 to 20 of us rapped to oppose CAA, NRC and the violence against students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jyoti Nivas College, Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. Several others joined us too. We rapped in English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Dakhini Urdu,” said one of the organisers and rappers, who wished to be identified only by his stage name, Nex.
His rap spoke about how he does not have a father, but the country expects him to show his grandfather’s documents to prove his patriotism and citizenship.
“I rapped in Dakhini Urdu -- I said that I bow my head five times a day during namaz, on this very land, and yet the state asks me to prove my citizenship. It was a poetic attempt to make people understand what we are going through,” he said.
Others rapped about detention centres, about how today’s situation was similar to the freedom struggle against the British, demonetisation, GST and other government decisions they were against.
One of the rappers spoke about how he chose not to have an Aadhaar card and voter ID. “People like him, who are citizens, will suffer because they don’t have documents as proof of citizenship,” said Nex, adding, “The home minister claimed that there were detention centres while the Prime Minister denied his claim. They don’t talk to each other but expect us to trust the government. Till now, we were on the fence about decisions such as demonetisation. However, with CAA and NRC, we are now aware of the PM and his party’s hatred towards minorities.”