Protesters from Shaheen Bagh plan to meet Amit Shah today
NEW DELHI: A group of protesters at Shaheen Bagh are planning to march to Union home minister Amit Shah’s residence on Sunday to hold talks with him over the recently amended citizenship law. This comes after Shah reportedly said he would give time to those willing to discuss the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, including Shaheen Bagh protesters.
Officials at the home ministry, however, said no appointment had been sought so far.
“Instead of a delegation, a large group protesters at Shaheen Bagh will go to meet the home minister on Sunday afternoon. We will march from the protest site at 2pm,” said Sajid Mojib, a protester. He added that discussions on the meeting took place on Saturday night. The announcement was made from the stage at the protest site on Saturday morning, as another faction said it would not march pending a consultation with anticaa protesters across the country.
“We are going as the home minister himself invited us, and that we could speak to him within three days,” said Sarvari, an elderly woman protester, more commonly known as one of the ‘Dadis’ of Shaheen Bagh. She was also a part of the delegation that went to meet Lieutenant
Governor Anil Baijal on January 21.
Mehrunnisa, a protester at the site who has been on a hunger strike for over a month, said, “We will march to meet our home minister and ask him to repeal the CAA.”
Residents of Shaheen Bagh have been on a sit-on for over two months now, demanding a repeal of the CAA, which they claim is “unconstitutional.” The ongoing protests, which are largely leaderless, have led to the closure of the arterial Road 13A, which connects Delhi with Noida and Faridabad.
However, not all protesters are on board with the idea of meeting Shah. Another group has raised objections to the rally, saying there will be no dialogue “behind closed doors.”
“All our protesters want to meet the home minister and have an open dialogue with him instead of having discussions with a delegation behind closed doors,” said Abid Sheikh, another protester.
Several protesters at the site also said they wanted the government representatives to come and speak to them.
“There is not just one Shaheen Bagh which has issues with the CAA. There are several other protests like this across the country. We need to get everyone on board and hold consultations before meeting the home minister,” said Hena Ahmed, another protester.
The protests were raked up several times during the recently concluded Delhi assembly elections, with several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders bringing up the anti-caa agitation during public meetings and campaigns.
Shah had also said voters should press the button on the voting machines so hard that its “current is felt in Shaheen Bagh.”
On counting day, February 11, protesters abstained from making any comments owing to a silent protest over the clashes that had taken place in Jamia the day before, leaving several students injured. “We do not support any political party,” read a protest sign at the spot.
RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said there was no intimation from the Shaheen Bagh protesters about their plan. “We haven’t received any message from them yet, but we are trying to communicate with them to identify if there is any identified delegation that will meet the home minister,” Meena said.
He said that once a delegation is identified, which won’t be allowed to have more than seven or eight members, the plan will be discussed with them. He also confirmed that a larger number would not be allowed to be a part of the delegation.