Dear Editor,
The nationwide agitation and anger against the CAA and the NRC have come as an unexpected blow to the BJP-led central government. This time, not one state or community is protesting but entire India is burning against the draconian CAA and NRC.
Students and academicians are on the streets, and artistes are condemning the act. Along with the pains of demonetization, unemployment, illiteracy, child labour, mal-nourishment and crimes against women, the Indian masses seem to have lost its faith on the false cliché of ‘achhe din’. No surprise that India’s happiness index ranks below Pakistan and Bangladesh, where the CAA proposes to import the citizens from!
Therefore, awakening to the call to safeguard India’s democracy and constitution, the widespread protests against the CAA and the NRC are a clean chit from Arunachal to Gujarat and Kashmir to Kanyakumari against the Centre’s attempt to divide India on religious, linguistic and regional bases. Rather than upholding the constitutional right to safeguard the linguist and religious minorities, the Centre is busy diluting the very cultural fabric of India. This raises a question on the constitutional validity of the Centre’s actions, not only with regard to CAA/NRC, but previous issues also. It has resultantly lost the faith of the masses of the country, who are ready for a do or die ultimatum.
However, the meat of the matter is not just the imposition of the CAA and the NRC but the very suppression of intellectual voices regarding the issue. The brutal attacks and sexual abuses on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and the AMU by the police are but a colonial attempt to crush the academic and intellectual voices in the country, just like the trial on JNU students or any other university.
The BJP-led Centre has time and again showed its disrespect towards our youths and intellectuals, thereby bringing a bad name to our country. Is this how we want to protect our daughters under the false cliché of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’? How can we send our daughters and sisters to the educational institutions to study when their life and modesty are violated by the lawmakers themselves in the library and hostel?
The UN Human Rights Delegation arrived to survey the brutal attack done by the Delhi Police on the students on the night of 15 December. Students from Harvard and Oxford Universities have condemned the actions of the government of India. Who will reverse the damage done to the name of our country at the global spectrum? In the name of CAA/NRC, the Centre has displayed its carelessness towards the citizens, inviting bitter protests not only within the country but also from outside, thereby seriously damaging its national and international interests.
Undoubtedly, ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikaas’ has been a huge failure. Achche din is nowhere to be seen after years of waiting. India’s unemployment, educational crises, economic recession, child labour, and crimes against women are enough to make any country’s government shake to its roots in the world. In such a situation, how can the Centre promise citizenship and resources to the immigrants when its own citizens are starving and children dying of malnutrition?
At this juncture, as India struggles with the bulk of unemployed youths, crumbling economy, child labour, crimes against women, violation of human rights and environmental degradation, the people march the streets, beating the chill of cold weather, and attacks of lathis and teargas shells, against the Centre which has given another blow by passing the the CAA and the NRC exercise.
The masses today stand in fiery opposition to the BJP-led central government which reminds one of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s famous protest ghazal, Hum Dekhenge –
Hum dekhenge…
Sab taaj uchhale jayenge
Sab takht giraaye jayenge…
Sincerely,
An Indian citizen,
a student and a teacher