Hundreds of lawyers take out rally against CAA-NRC-NPR in Kolkata

Hundreds of lawyers practising at the Calcutta High Court and some district courts took out a protest rally against CAA, NRC and NPR here on Tuesday (February 4).

Coming together under the banner “Lawyers for Democracy”, the advocates, owing allegiance to different political parties, walked from the high court to Subodh Mallick Square in central Kolkata, covering a distance of around two kilometres.

Senior lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya of CPI (M), Uttam Majumdar of Congress and Leftist opposition party SUCI’s legal centre leader Bivas Ghosh led the rally, which saw the participation of around 400 lawyers.

Carrying placards and posters, the lawyers raised slogans against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

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The CAA allows easier citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis and Jains who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015 to escape religious persecution there.

Muslim migrants don’t figure on this list.

Those opposing the CAA contend that it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA along with the NRC is intended to target the Muslim community in India.

However, the central government has dismissed the allegations, maintaining that the law is intended to give citizenship to the persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring countries and not to take away anyone’s citizenship.