Deccan Chronicle

Protesters asked to gear up for long battle

NPR will affect other communitie­s too, says JAC convener

- ATHER MOIN I DC

Ms Sara Mathews, city convener of Alliance against CAA, NPR and NRC, said, “we have to prepare for a protracted battle to protect the constituti­onal rights of citizens. We should adopt various ways and means to prolong the ongoing battle against CAA, NPR and NRC.”

She made this observatio­n while addressing students of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU).

Ms Mathews said foreign kingdoms invaded India many times and mostly “we failed to defend our boundaries due to wrong strategic approaches adopted by our forces. Likewise, we never attacked any dynasty, because India was rich with full of resources and our people did not want to step out of the comfort zone. If we do not leave our comfort zone and fail to adopt a wise strategy, then we will lose our fight against criminal ideologist­s. We need to explore changing methods.”

She said the fight against CAA, NPR and NRC is not a struggle of only Muslims as other communitie­s will also be affected once NRC is implemente­d.

The most affected communitie­s will Muslims, minorities and dalits.

She pointed out that initially Mr Amit Shah excluded Muslims and now he does not mention about Christians while detailing about the communitie­s who will get citizenshi­ps, which means they will deprive the communitie­s one after another community. Woman activist Ms Khalida

Parveen said that this was a struggle of minorities, dalits, poor and women. Women and students have shown a direction for a movement against CAA, NPR and NRC. She condemned the fresh police brutal attack against students of Jamia Millia Islamia in which dozens of students have been severely injured.

She said “we are apologetic that in Telangana we could not demonstrat­e like Shaheen Bagh. We also aspire to demonstrat­e here. We try daily to express our feelings, but the police do not allow us to conduct even peaceful protests. We are not afraid of criminal cases.”

Mr Shaik Umer Farooq Quadri, President Students Union MANUU, welcomed the gathering. Students staged a drama, read poetry and sang songs.

 ?? — DC ?? Maulana Azad National Urdu University students organise a protest against CAA, NRC and NPR inside the campus
— DC Maulana Azad National Urdu University students organise a protest against CAA, NRC and NPR inside the campus

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