Mass protests scontinued today against CAA-NRC in several states. In Delhi, a mass protest was held today at Jamia in which several hundred lawyers also participated along with the students and local residents. Daily protests are continuing in the area since December 15 when the police had resorted to brutal repression.
Minors arrested after yesterday’s protest from Jama Masjid were released in the early hours today from among hte 42 detained by the police and kept in Darya Ganj police station.
UP saw the massive protests in Rampur and Kanpur cities of UP. Huge processions were taken out in the cities against CAA-NRC. yesterday nearly 18 were reportedly killed by police. In UP Yogi Adityananth Govt. is resorting to twin tactics of communalizing the protests on the one hand while brutally suppressing them on the other. Chief Minister Yogi had threatened to take ‘revenge’ on those protesting against CAA. Yesterday and also today, UP police denied firing on the people despite video evidence of the same. In UP more than eight hundred people have been arrested while action has been taken against neargly five thousand people. This number may be much larger than the reported one. Their propaganda makes Goebels appear a child in the art of misinformation. In the meanwhile video evidence has surfaced how Police has deliberately targeted and killed the peaceful protesters in Mangalore on December 19, 2019.
RSS-BJP attempt to communalize the protests run much deeper. RSS linked sites are putting brazenly communal material to claim that CAA will help reduce Mauslim population in India even as RSS-BJP Govt. is claiming that CAA does not target Indian Muslims. A report outlining such propaganda is published in The Wire.
Yesterday i.e. on 20th December, Kolkata Telegraph carried a report of BJP workers pelting stones on a rail engine in Murshidabad district in West Bengal wearing skull caps and lungis. They were caught by the local people and handed over to the police. This incident should be seen in the background of Prime Minister Modi’s exhortation during an election meeting in Jharkhand that trouble makers should be identified by the dress worn by them. RSS is past master in such tactics. They had used skull caps in Malegaon in Maharashtra as well. Modi’s statement besides being provocative has sinister portents.
Despite severe repression, protests are continuing unabated. In Guwahati today, a huge women’s protest against CAA was held. Women’s protests were held in different parts of Assam which drew large number of participants. Large protests have been held in Tamil Nadu including in Madurai, chennai and Coimbatore.
Big protest also held in Jaipur today. Internet services have been closed in the city for next few days. Similarly in several cities of UP internet has been completely shut down while it is irregular in the most parts of the state. This has been called as the largest shut down of internet service any where in the world. Incidentally, J&K is reportedly experiencing longest shut down of internet in the history of internet. This has been the state of ‘democracy’ in what the rulers pride themselves to call the largest democracy in the world which at best is a curtailed democracy.
People’s protests against CAA-NRC-NPR will continue to gain strength as increasing sections of the people and in more and more areas join this struggle against this fascist attack of RSS-BJP govt. People well understand that this Govt. has ruined the economy, increased unemployment and has failed on all fronts and to cover up their failures and serve the interests of foreign and domestic corporate and other ruling reactionary sections, is attempting to divert people’s attention, to disrupt growing people’s unity and to suppress their struggles it is creating bogey of the danger to the country.
Students and Youth are in the forefront of this struggle. They too have vital stake in the future of the country. RSS-BJP Govt. is suppressing the e ignoring a lesson of history that those who suppress the students come to grief.
CPI(ML)-New Democracy strongly condemns the firing and killings by the police in BJP ruled states. CPI(ML)-New Democracy calls upon the people to continue their mass protests till CAA is repealed and NCR-NPR is cancelled.
December 21, 2019