Protesters hold banners during a protest against the citizenship bill on December 30th.
Photographer: Himanshu Bhatt / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photographer: Himanshu Bhatt / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Protesters across India plan to use New Year’s Eve holidays to hold street parties to continue their fight against the country’s new religion the law of citizenship which they say is discriminatory.
Groups of activists and students from New Delhi and several other cities have turned to social media to ask people to join them at midnight to ring in 2021. They plan to do comedy, music, poetry and readings of the secular constitution of India at meetings.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 11 pushed for the Citizenship Amendment Act which allows undocumented migrants of all faiths except Islam from neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to seek Indian citizenship. Protesters allege that the new law will alter the secular ethos of the country and violate the constitution which guarantees equal treatment to all religions.
For more than two weeks, tens of thousands of Indians of all religions have taken to the streets to demand that the government withdraw the law. Civil society groups, some of which are leading the protests, said the imminent move to create a new nationwide register of citizens that the government has promised will lead to greater chaos.
Posts appeared on Twitter and Facebook on Tuesday asking people to gather in various cities, including New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai.
Organizers are asking people to bring their own posters and candles and to “shake a leg to the songs of freedom” and “enjoy the rich taste of justice.”
The government’s reaction to the protests has been swift and heavy. At least 26 people, most in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, have been killed as police cracked down on protesters. Hundreds more have been arrested and detained.