Inter-faith chorus

It was an intermingling of faiths on Sunday at Shaheen Bagh in the national capital, where recitations from religious books marked the antiCAA protests, a grim reminder to the government that all sections, not just Muslims, have misgivings about the legislation.

So, in an exemplary demonstration at the 'sarva dharma' meet, there was a traditional Hindu-style 'hawan', chants of Sikh 'kirtan' and recitations from Quran; the event also saw participants reading out the Preamble of the Constitution and taking an oath to preserve its "socialist, secular" values.

The crowd swelled from hundreds to over a thousand by afternoon. Being a Sunday and the weather relatively warmer, more people, were able to join the protest.

The concept of 'sarv dharm sambhav' (equal respect for all religions or peaceful co-existence of all religions) was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi during freedom struggle against the British rule to promote inter-faith harmony.

Hundreds of protestors, including women and children, have been camping at the Sarita Vihar-Kalindi Kunj road at Shaheen Bagh; their movement for withdrawal of the contentious citizenship legislations was set to complete a month on Monday.

Zainul Abidin, 44, of Ghaffar Manzil had started a hunger strike on December 16 to press the demand for repealing the CAA and after a fortnight was joined by Mehrunissa, 40, of Sarita Vihar.

Besides them, three elderly women - now popular as the 'Dabang Dadis' of Shaheen Bagh - too have been a constant sight on the centre stage of the protest venue since day one.

A replica of the India Gate has also come up near the site with names of the people who have lost their lives during anti-CAA protests across the country inked on it.

Over two dozen such names are written on the replica, including those from states like Assam, Karnataka, Bihar and most of them from Uttar Pradesh.