KOCHI: Kerala on Monday witnessed massive protest against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) with students of various universities and colleges taking to streets across the state and the ruling LDF and opposition UDF coming together in state capital to organise a hunger strike demanding withdrawal of the Act.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan faced the wrath of protestors when students of Cochin University waved black flags and blocked his vehicle at the university’s entrance gate. The governor had come for vice-chancellors’ conference.
The hunger strike ‘Kerala’s Democratic Resistance’ at Martyrs’ Square in Thiruvananthapuram was led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. Various leaders took part in the strike.Binary said the RSS’ agenda to strip the country of its secular character and turn it into a theocratic state would not be allowed.
‘Central govt curtailing people’s rights’
“If secularism needs to be protected, attempts to determine citizenship on the basis of religion should be stopped,” Pinarayi said.Chennithala said: “They (BJP government) know that if India’s secularism is wrecked, its democracy too can be easily undermined. The Centre is curtailing the rights of the people to respond and protest,” he said.
In Palakkad, various youth organisations took out protest marches while students staged protests at Government Victoria College and Government Sanskrit College, Pattambi. The Muslim Students Federation, Kerala State Sunni Students’ Federation and Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation organised a protest march to the Kasaragod railway station while DYFI blocked the national highway in the town.
Students of Central University of Kerala in Kasaragod boycotted classes. Trains were blocked by the DYFI and Youth Congress in Kozhikode. Teachers and staff of Calicut university staged protest on its premises.