Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Doctors, chartered accountants, teachers, lawyers, students and other professionals walked from College Street to Esplanade on Saturday evening to bust the narrative that those protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens had no idea about the two.

Members of We the Professionals, the forum that organised the rally, walked with candles in their hands to dispel the “false narrative” that most protests against the CAA and NRC were violent.

“The leaders and the ruling dispensation and their Internet army are creating an impression that the protesters have not read the bill. We want to counter that narrative. People who have come here know the law, have read the bill and can see through the nefarious designs of the government,” said Asif Ali, a chartered accountant and one of the organisers.

Amitesh Ray, one of the several hundreds who walked, turned the ignorance narrative on its head.

“Any educated person will tell you that the CAA and the NRC are discriminatory,” said the lawyer who practises at Calcutta High Court.

“The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament opens the floodgates for other discriminatory laws based on religion.”

Young people have been at the forefront of the protests all over the country.

Some leaders of the ruling dispensation have said the protesters are being misguided. There are countless sermons on the social media that say the protests are being fuelled by disinformation and lies.

Before the walk started, a middle-aged man told the gathering why the rally had to be peaceful. “The impression being created is that the protesters are setting things on fire everywhere. But we will follow the model of Gandhi, who drove the British out by peaceful civil disobedience,” Manzar Jameel, one of the organisers, said.

Ali said the Prime Minister and home minister were speaking in different voices on the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens. “But what you say has no value. If it had, then most of us would have got Rs 15 lakh each in our accounts,” he said, as the gathering cheered loudly.

Soumya Sahin, associate professor at the National University of Juridical Sciences, explained why he walked.

“Citizenship gives the right to get all other rights that the Constitution provides to all citizens. If you are bringing religious discrimination while granting citizenship, that is blatant violation of Article 14 of the Constitution that says that all are equal in the eyes of law.”

Lawyers, doctors, nurses, executives, students and hundreds of others lent their voice to the chorus of protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens as they walked from College Street to Esplanade on Saturday evening. The Telegraph spoke to some of them

Picture by Pradip Sanyal

‘Blood groups matter, not religion’

Naila Jabeen, a nurse at ESI Hospital in Maniktala, walked side by side with her sister Shumaila Tahseen, a nurse at Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences.

“When we take oath, we pledge not to discriminate among patients. For us, humanity comes first and whoever needs immediate attention has to be attended to,” said Jabeen, who came to the rally on the way to work.

Tahseen said blood groups, not religion, mattered in blood donation. “When people need blood they don’t wait to see the religion of the donor. They only check whether the group matches. Else, they would not survive,” she said.

‘Protest a democratic tool’

One studies in Delhi and the other in Mumbai. Both joined the rally in their hometown, not because “political parties are asking them to but because of a deep-seated feeling of being wronged”.

“The passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is the tipping point. It is the most explicit expression of the ruling party being discriminatory,” said Noumaan Anwar , a student of history at St Stephen’s College, Delhi.

A student of journalism, Vartika Rastogi, said the protest was a “democratic tool”. “At least in Bengal the common people are feeling safe to come out on the streets to protest… the police are escorting the participants of the rally… in Delhi there would be chances of the cops thrashing them or detaining them,” she said.

‘CAA is anti-human’

Mohammad Asif Iqbal cannot see. But that did not stop him from walking down College Street and up to Esplanade, a stick in hand.

The associate director with a multinational company, who came to the rally from his office at Salt Lake, said the “secular fabric” of the nation was under threat because of the CAA and the NRC.

“Every Indian citizen should come out and protest. The CAA is not only anti-Muslim but also anti-human. It is also anti-poor and poor people will be victimised,” said Iqbal, who fights for the rights of people with disabilities.

Discrimination is not new to Iqbal, who has seen people with disabilities being discriminated against and tried to fight it.

‘If you are silent… you are an oppressor’

Friends Khadija Aslam (left), a postgraduate student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Priyambada Banerjee, a postgraduate student at Presidency University, were there to “fight oppression.”

“There has been a systematic oppression of Muslims over the years. But this act is a direct affront to my identity. In that case, I will cling to my identity more than before and assert my defiance,” said Khadija.

Priyambada joined her friend from undergraduate days at Presidency to “show solidarity”. “If you are silent, it means you are conforming to oppression. If you do not speak against oppression, then you are an oppressor,” she said.