Lipika Sarkar

Dipak Kumar Basu

Vishmya Mistry

Thousands of people marched with chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.

There were some who came just for Mamata and there were many who walked because they supported the cause behind the rally. They said the act and the NRC could have devastating consequences. Subhankar Chowdhury of The Telegraph spoke with some of them

I am scared..., it’s very humiliating

A 71-year-old mechanical engineer, whose ancestors had come from Mymensingh in Bangladesh, joined the march because he feared that the NRC would have a “catastrophic impact” on people like him.

The urge to protest the “kala kanoon” drove Dipak Kumar Basu, a BTech from Jadavpur University and former employee of the state irrigation department, to walk 7km, from the 8B bus stand in Jadavpur to Jadubabur Bazar. He walked with niece Kakali Deb Roy.

“My forefathers had come from the then East Bengal in 1949. Since then the family has been living in Bapujinagar, near Jadavpur. I am scared of the BJP’s vow to implement NRC in Bengal. It’s a ‘kala kanoon’. Why should one produce documents to prove their credentials as a citizen? Just see what they have done in Assam,” said the septuagenarian.

As he was speaking to Metro under the Gariahat flyover, a marcher carrying a poster that had the slogan “Assam theke siksha nao, NRC rukhe dao (Take lessons from Assam, resist NRC)” written on it went past him.

Basu was not raising any slogan but was as firm in his opposition to the act and the NRC as others.

“If I am asked to produce documents, I would rather want them to send me to a detention camp. I find this whole exercise extremely humiliating,” said Basu.

Of the 19 lakh people left out of the NRC in Assam, around 12 lakh are Hindus. Those left out of the final NRC have been given a deadline to approach the foreigners tribunals to prove their citizenship.

If declared foreigners, they would be kept at detention centres.

I resolved that I would walk, come what may

A 75-year-old former teacher joined the march despite being asked not to by her grandson.

Lipika Sarkar, who barely steps out of her home, was determined to walk to voice her protest against the act and NRC, even if that meant covering only 500 metres.

“It is difficult to conceive of an India without Muslims,” said Sarkar, who taught at Muralidhar Girls’ School.

“I resolved that I would walk, come what may. I am seeing so much of tension since the introduction of the act. I joined the rally at Hazra.” Sarkar tripped and fell on the road near the Hazra crossing as her legs got entangled in a rope.

“I did not give up and completed the 500m-stretch that I wanted to cover,” she said.

She stood at the base of the dais off Jadubabur Bazar, where the rally ended, and joined the chorus repeating the chief minister’s pledge against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens.

“I will join whoever leads the protest on these issues,” said Sarkar.

I am not affected but my friends are

The deformity in his left leg since birth could not prevent him from joining the rally.

“I am a resident of Calcutta and may not be affected by the act. But I know of many of my friends in Tollygunge whose forefathers had come from Bangladesh and are worried because of the law. Many of them walked today and asked me to join. I could not resist,” said Vishmya Mistry, a resident of Choto Ras Bari in Chetla.

Mistry walked 6km on Tuesday, more than double the distance he manages daily.

“I could only walk till the Rashbehari Avenue crossing because my limbs were aching but I am happy to have hit the streets to register my protest,” he said.

Mistry was confused why the Centre seemed bent on stoking social tensions at a time a host of pressing issues were crying out for attention.

“I sell rice and vegetables. Instead of addressing issues such as price rice, the government is only adding to the tension,” he said.