As the protests against contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are not going to die anytime soon, thousands of protesters,  including a large number of women, on Saturday came together to protest against CAA, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) at Mumbai’s iconic Azad Maidan amid recitation of Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s popular poem “Hum Dekhenge” and slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

While Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh has emerged as an epicentre of the anti-CAA protest where the pro.testers are sitting since December 15 demanding the government to withdraw the law. 

The “maha-morcha” protest was organised by the Maharashtra chapter of the ”National Alliance Against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the proposed National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register”.
The participants came to Azad Maidan from various parts of Mumbai and the extended suburbs like Navi Mumbai, Thane as well as other parts of Maharashtra.

Waving the national flag and holding banners denouncing the CAA-NRC-NPR in their hands, the protesters raised slogans like “Modi, Shah se Azadi” (freedom from PM Modi and Amit Shah) and “freedom from the CAA and the NRC”.

The protesters resolved against showing any documents (during the NPR exercise or otherwise), saying that they are citizens of India since time immemorial.

Resolutions against CAA, NRC, NPR were also passed on the occasion.
They demanded that the new citizenship law be repealed in the current Parliament session.

At the stage at Azad Maidan, speakers recited noted Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s famous poem “Hum Dekhenge” (We will see), which has of late emerged as a kind of anthem for the anti-CAA protests in the country.

Women protesters raised slogans like “Hum betiyan hain Jhanshi ki rani ki aur Mata Jijau ki.”

Convener of the protest, Justice (retired) Kolse Patil, social activist Teesta Setalvad, actor Sushant Singh, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi etc. were present on the occasion.

The Supreme Court had last month made it clear that it will not pass restraint orders on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the National Population Register (NPR) or the National Register of Citizens (NRC) without hearing the Centre and thereby allowing the government to freely implement the laws.

Protests have erupted across the nation with violence and arson emerging from different parts of Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and the northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur after the citizenship law was amended.

According to the new law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

Those opposing the amended law say it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA, along with the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC), is intended to target India’s Muslim community.

Meanwhile, in a significant observation on Shaheen Bagh, the Supreme Court had on Monday said that there “cannot be indefinite protests” and “agitations cannot continue like this on public places”.

(With PTI inputs)