Protesters push K Chandrasekhar Rao over CAA

Hyderabad: More than 2,500 people from various communities gathered at Crystal Garden in the city to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The protesters, many of them students, held aloft anti-CAA and azadi posters and placards. Every now and then, they shouted slogans, Arrest me, I attacked JNU, From 10.5 per cent GDP to 4.2 per cent and Godi media not allowed.

The protests were organised under the auspices of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Joint Action Committee against the CAA and the NRC.

The protesters pledged that coming Friday, they all would take an oath not to submit any papers to the government.

JAC convener Mushtaq Mallik said a new history would begin in Hyderabad. “Our women will sit in Hyderabad replicating the Shaheen Bagh. Many attempts were made to foil the Million March as also this meeting. Do not challenge the spirit of India, it will prove costly. We have ruled for 900 years, not six years, and did justice to people. Police have booked 25 cases against me, but I will not abandon the movement,” Mallik asserted, urging Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to pass a resolution in the Assembly against the CAA and the NPR in Telangana.

Mufti Abdul Mugani Mazaheri, city president of Jamiat Ulema Hind, said, “The Chief Minister must break his silence on the issue and make his stand clear.”

There were also poets in the gathering who narrated verses on the issue. “We will not submit any documents to prove our domicile residency. We are ready to bear any difficulties,” chorused the crowd.

They maintained that attempts were being made by the BJP to undermine the country’s unity.

Moulana Naseer, state organiser of Wahdat e Islami said, “We are thankful to other communities, which have come forward and are standing alongside with us to fight these draconian forces.”

Former Rajya Sabha member Syed Aziz Pasha said government never expected that the public would rise in a massive way against CAA, NRC and NPR.

He said, “Internationally acclaimed intellectuals are also opposing the BJP government’s move. Our relationships with Bangladesh and Afghanistan have already been strained due to the Citizenship Amendment Act. We hope the government will not succeed in its designs,” he remarked.

Justice Chandra Kumar, former judge, said the government has been forced to go on the back foot. “Two to three days back, the government clarified that they will not seek documents. Now, they are stating that there is no need to provide information about parents’ place of birth. But these are only verbal, with nothing on paper so far,” Justice Chandra Kumar pointed out.