Hyderabad (India) — Over 100,0000 protestors took part in a peaceful demonstration in south-India’s Hyderabad city on Saturday, raising slogans against PM Modi’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
UK-based Guardian reported that the protest labelled “The Million March” was organized by an umbrella group of Muslim and civil society organizations.
Reuters reported that, demonstrators were still entering the protest site late on Saturday afternoon, despite police constricted permission for only a 1,000-person gathering.
The protesters held placards with slogans including “withdraw CAA immediately”, and “India’s only religion is secularism”.
Some of the protestors raised creative slogans “Dada Ladey the Goron se, Hum Ladenge Choron se” – “Grandpa fought the British and we’ll fight the thieves”.
The Indian government has witnessed violent protests against the Citizenship law which was passed by Modi government in December 2019, which aims at granting India citizenship to people of six faiths except Muslims.
If CAA combined with a proposed national register of citizens (NRC), critics fear it will discriminate against minority Muslims in India and damage India’s secular constitution.
The bill also drew criticism in United Nations, terming it as “fundamentally discriminating”.
