Candle-light vigil to commemorate CAA protests

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A collective of citizen groups from Naaveddu Nilladiddare and Bahutva Karnataka held a candle-light vigil on Saturday, near Maurya Circle, to commemorate the second year anniversary of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The citizens’ collective also observed the anniversary of the martyrdom of freedom fighters Ashfaqullah Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri.

It may be recalled that the CAA was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019 and by the Rajya Sabha on December 11 and was assented by the President on December 12.

The act provides citizenship on the basis of religion to six undocumented non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Massive protests were held across the country to oppose the controversial act, which was to be implemented along with the National Register of Citizen and National Population Register. While CAA is seen as as an instrument to polarise voters, the citizenship debate in the Northeast was over a different issue.

Assam and the rest of the Northeast were up in arms against the legislation fearing it would disrupt the ethnic demography by allowing more Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh.

In New Delhi a peaceful sit-in protest was held at Shaheen Bagh from December 15, 2019 to March 24, 2020. The protest came to an end after the government imposed a countrywide lockdown to fight Covid-19.