Sustained campaigns against the CAA and the NRC have morphed worldwide into protests in solidarity with assaulted students. Multiple protests have taken place in London, New York, Oxford, Leicester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, the Hague and Paris, despite reports of intimidation from right-wing CAA-NRC supporters based in those cities.
Abhishek (surname withheld on request), is a 26-year-old, who is into his sixth year in France. “When we heard of CAA being passed in Parliament, we started with protests on a small scale every Saturday till something bigger could be planned,” he told The Telegraph.
The Tollygunge boy was part of a daylong protest in Paris recently, where a placard read: Les Francaises pour l’Inde laique (The French for secular India). Another read: #No NRC #No CAA.
“There were close to 40 of us, including an American and a French national.” They gathered, with police permission, at Place du Trocadero, within sight of the Eiffel tower, and for two hours, shouted slogans. If passers-by asked, they gave out pamphlets. “The French lady with us addressed the gathering in French, explaining how secularism is in danger in India and Muslims are being targeted, as did a Maharashtrian friend. Amid the speeches, the slogans and the songs, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of those killed in police atrocities and dead in detention camps.”
Then they went to the Indian high commission. “Here some people, who seemed to be BJP loyalists, landed up. The party has a strong support base among NRIs in France and try to disrupt anti-government protests. Some of them tried to infiltrate our ranks. We told them if they supported us they should hold our placards or keep their distance.”
When they tried provocation, the protestors refused to get into an argument and started singing ‘We shall overcome’. Still, some of the students distributing pamphlets were threatened that they would be dealt with once they reached India.
“We want the French to know what is happening in India. And we want to show solidarity with the agitating students. Tomorrow we will meet again to read out the Preamble to the Constitution,” he said.
