Mumbai experienced a huge number of protests yesterday,19th December, in several parts of the city, as part of the All India Protest against Citizenship Amendment Act.
Students came out in big numbers, and there were also a few familiar activists and celebrities, such as Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Huma Qureshi at the August Kranti Maidan. They say that they are simply there to show solidarity with the protestors and these protests remained peaceful throughout.
Quoting actor Sushant Singh “We want the dialogue to happen, between the government and its people to ensure that we aren’t misguided and to verify about who, why and when a citizen should be bothered by such an act.”
Farhan Akhtar while justifying why he wanted to protest against CAA, said, “To raise your voice against something is an absolute democratic right. People are raising their voices and I am subscribed to their view, that there seems to be a certain amount of discrimination. It is important for me to raise my voice against something, that I believe, is going to affect my nation and its people discriminatorily.” He further stated that he understands when CAA got combined with NRC, Indian Muslims will be stateless.
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha and actor Swara Bhaskar joined Rajdeep Sardesai for a conversation on News Today to put forward their anti-CAA opinions. Swara Bhaskar replied back to accusations of fearmongering by saying that the CAA-NRC looks like an attempt to gain constitutional validity for the project ‘Hindu Rashtra’. Mumbai, along with its privileged citizens protesting on the streets, stands against the atrocities of the ruling party, in the form of internet shutdown, lathi charges on non-violent protests and police detaining innocent students.
The solidarity displayed by various protests happening in all parts of the country implies that these protests have no face of a particular opposition party, and are rather a medium for pure disagreement by the citizens with their government.
