Protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act championed by the BJP government continued with a group of Indian-Americans gathering around the statue of Mahatma Gandhi installed in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC in the United States.
“We are here for only a single purpose. That purpose is civil rights and religious freedom and nothing more than that,” Indian-American Mike Ghouse from the Washington-based non-governmental organisation Centre for Pluralism told the gathering, which included women, children and students.
Organised by American-Indian Muslims in association with over a dozen similar bodies, peaceful protesters from in and around the Greater Washington Area on Sunday shouted slogans in favour of India’s unity and displayed posters and banners alleging that the country was headed in a direction that was not secular in nature and violated the ethos of the Constitution.
The protesters also passed a resolution requesting the Indian government to withdraw both the NRC and the CAA, a copy of which was submitted to the Indian Embassy.
Protests were also organised all across India on Monday with the Congress holding a rally in New Delhi, the DMK in Chennai and almost 100,000 people taking to the streets in Bengaluru causing traffic jams and roadblocks throughout the city.
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi sat on a dharna against the CAA at Rajghat in New Delhi.
DMK president MK Stalin along with leaders of allies, including senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, MDMK chief Vaiko and state unit leaders of the Left parties took part in a protest rally in Chennai. Bengaluru witnessed traffic snarls in various pockets as almost 100,000 protesters took to the street, according to media reports.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was shown black flags and posters of 'BJP activist Mr Jagdeep Dhankar Go back' by students on his arrival at Jadavpur University for the varsity’s convocation ceremony.
Also read: CAA: What NRIs have to say about the contentious issue
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was led by working president JP Nadda in a rally in West Bengal's Kolkata to counter the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC protests led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the state.
According to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), only members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.
