About a hundred students from different educational institutions gathered at Taxi Stand on Main Road in Ranchi on Friday afternoon to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

The students read the Preamble to the Constitution in Hindi at the beginning of the roughly one-and-half-hour meeting. Then they staged a street play on the CAA, NRC and NPR, followed by recitation of poems the students had composed.

For many, this was the second day of protest.

Shamam Arfeen

“We are not affiliated to any political outfit and have been protesting as our conscience prompted us to do so,” said Shamam Arfeen, a Ranchi University student who was among the organisers of the protest.

Swati Sikha, a Ranchi girl who is pursuing her MA in political science at Ambedkar University in Delhi, added: “Those affiliated to any political outfit have their compulsion to agree or disagree with some political happenings but we are free from that and are doing what we felt right.”

Asked about the name of their group, Shamam smiled and said: “Well, if you ask, it’s Kahab to Lag Jai Dhak Se.…”

That's actually the name of their WhatsApp group, taken from a song from the film Article 15.

Swati Sikha

“I protest as the CAA leaves out the Muslims and that violates the guarantee of equality to all as our Constitution provides,” Shamam said when asked.

There are Ahmedias and Sunnis among the Muslims in Pakistan who may be persecuted there, he argued, adding they may also need the same concession on grounds of compassion — if giving persecuted people refuge is indeed the motive of the law.

He also pointed out that many poor people don't have their birth certificates or other relevant documents as proof of their citizenship, asking if all of them would be termed as outsiders or stateless people in the proposed all-India NRC.

“As a student of political science, I don't see CAA and NRC in isolation because both these look like interlinked parts of a policy of the present government to polarise people and strengthen their party's vote bank,” said Swati. “We can’t accept the NRC as scores of genuine people without proper documents could be sent to detention camps for no fault of theirs.”

Kumar Yash

In a country where GDP growth slowing down with every passing day, it's also not wise to incur huge expenditure on maintenance of detention camps, she added.

“Instead of promoting Islamophobia among the citizens, we expect the government to act to rejuvenate the economy and generate employment,” Swati said.

Kumar Yash, a Class XII student who also joined the protest, said: “After going through so many propaganda materials on social media, I felt the CAA and the NRC are planned to sideline a particular community and hence I felt like protesting against these.”

Before dispersing, the students sang the song Kahab to Lag Jai Dhak Se....