New Delhi: ‘Hum Sab ek hai’ the chorus resonates on tongues of every protestor a true Indian in resistance amid the nationwide outcry against the discriminatory CAA-NRC-NPR.
Stepping into the new year 2020, Shaheen Bagh sounds more determined than ever, Indian Express reports.
“We are not going anywhere. We are speaking in one voice. But our rulers are not. They are confused,” says Nasreen Hasan, a homemaker.
“This gathering has shattered the perception that Muslim women are conservative, suggestions that they are chained. Log kehte the ki Musalman aurat nikalte nahi hai, ab humne unka wo khawaish bhi poora kar diya,” Nasreen said.
Muslim women breaking sterotypes!
Shaheen Bagh’s protestors not only attended the protest but were accompanied by their children as well.
On Tuesday, the sit-in increased with people with packets of food, other essentials pouring in not just from the immediate neighbourhoods, but across Delhi. A team of doctors is also present to patients at one corner of the stage pitched on the Kalindi Kunj Road.
“We have ample stock of food and other commodities to last us a month. We plan to distribute the excess items at the nearby Rohingya camp on January 1 to spread some cheer among them,” says IIT PhC scholar Asif Mujtaba, who is also among the chief organizers of the protest.
CAA-NRC-NPR
“Our awareness is behind the mobilisation; the awareness that CAA goes against Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution. We are not against others coming in. But why are Muslims being kept out?” says another protestor Saba Fuzail, a UPSC aspirant.
The discriminatory CAA has brought Indians from all regions together once again proving that our nation is a secular nation unlike what the Hindutva ideologies are dreaming to change it to.
Another protestor Yadav says: “In the future, when someone asks where you were when the country was being destroyed, I will proudly say that I was in Shaheen Bagh.”
IAS turned activist
Addressing the gathering around 11.15 pm, IAS-turned-activist Harsh Mander said the people of Shaheen Bagh have set a great example through their determination. Mander said the denial from the top echelons of the government that there was no detention centre in the country was a lie.
“I have witnessed first hand the hellish conditions in those facilities,” he said, pointing out that the victory of the ongoing movement against CAA and NRC also lies in the fact that many states have decided not to implement them.