Finally, Jammu breaks silence; protests held against CAA, NRC
Jammu, from where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a record 25 seats in the 2014 Assembly elections, witnessed protest demonstrations against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). There are also voices expressing concern over the decision to abrogate Article 370 and re-organisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in August.
Students, political workers and ordinary people staged protest rallies and sit-ins in the heart of the city on Thursday (December 19) to express solidarity with the protests across the country. Activists of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and members of CPI(M) affiliates gathered at the Jammu Press Club to hold protest. Protestors raised slogans like “Hindu Muslim Sikh Ittehad” (Hindu, Muslim Sikh Unity) and “Citizenship Amendment Act ko wapas lo” (Revoke Citizenship Amendment Act).
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Sources told The Federal that over hundred protesters, mostly workers of Youth Congress, tried to come out on the main road to register their protest, but were not allowed. They were briefly detained.
Many activists of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) held a peaceful sit-in inside the Jammu Press Club and then dispersed peacefully.
Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor, Kashmir Times, said, “Initially, there was a sense of fear in Jammu. People were scared of the reprisal, seeing what had happened in Kashmir. Now there is a sense of insecurity, and that is why the people in Jammu have finally chosen to speak up. People in Jammu have apprehensions that the outsiders will come to Jammu, take their land, scholarships and jobs, and then settle down permanently there.”
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Tejinder Singh, Senior Superintendent of J&K Police, Jammu Range, said that was no formal arrests and no FIR was lodged. He also said that Section 144 was not in place in Jammu.
Harsh Dev Singh, chairman, JKNPP and former education minister in Mufti Saeed’s government questioned the “continuance of various restrictions besides denial of several rights and privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir which are generally available to all other citizens of the country. Jammu and Kashmir is being treated differently… J&K continues to bleed. In peaceful Jammu too, the mobile internet has been banned and there are no takers for the outcry of the affected people. Those who question the policies of the government are put behind bars. Right to hold peaceful protests, which is a hallmark of Indian democracy, has been denied to us.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Kashmiri students at Srinagar’s Islamia College of Science and Commerce protested police action against students in Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and various parts of Delhi.
Also read | Anti-CAA protests transcend intra-community rivalry in Kolkata
