Protestors across India who cannot be identified by their clothes

21 December 2019
The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act expose the blatant falsehoods of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that the protestors can be identified by their clothes.
Zishaan A Latif
The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act expose the blatant falsehoods of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that the protestors can be identified by their clothes.
Zishaan A Latif

India has witnessed an outbreak of protests across the country and even abroad, ever since the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 came into force on 12 December. The police responded with brute force, leading to the death of several protesters in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam, and a brutal crackdown against students, particularly in Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. As protests raged on in several cities, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government at the centre claimed that the police crackdown was in response to violent protests that were spurred by the Congress. On 15 December, while addressing a rally in Jharkhand, where a five-phase assembly election is currently ongoing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked, “Those who are creating violence can be identified by their clothes”—ostensibly, a reference to the Muslim community.

The protests themselves, however, expose the blatant falsehoods of Modi’s comments. The protestors have visibly been from a range of communities. The Caravan spoke to ten protestors from Bengaluru, Mumbai, New York and Delhi about why they chose to protest.

Rohan Seth

Keywords: Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests protesters Jamia Millia Islamia Aligarh Muslim University Assam Accord
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