Protestors across India who cannot be identified by their clothes // "Great Time To Be A Benevolent Government": Harsha Bhogle's Facebook Post

By Dilip -
India has witnessed an outbreak of protests across the country and even abroad, ever since the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 came into force on 12 December. The police responded with brute force, leading to the death of several protesters in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam, and a brutal crackdown against students, particularly in Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. As protests raged on in several cities, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government at the centre claimed that the police crackdown was in response to violent protests that were spurred by the Congress. 

 On 15 December, while addressing a rally in Jharkhand, where a five-phase assembly election is currently ongoing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked, “Those who are creating violence can be identified by their clothes” - ostensibly, a reference to the Muslim community. The protests themselves, however, expose the blatant falsehoods of Modi’s comments. The protestors have visibly been from a range of communities. The Caravan spoke to ten protestors from Bengaluru, Mumbai, New York and Delhi about why they chose to protest.

 Rohan Seth: Seth is a former student of Jamia Millia Islamia who attended a protest in Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan on 19 December. The news about the violence at JMI was devastating. I know for a fact that a lot of my friends did not sleep the night the violence happened, and then for nights on end. A lot of people cried all night—a couple of friends admitted it to me yesterday. These are the places where we have hung out at, chilled at and we never thought it would transform into war zones overnight. We never thought something like this could ever happen in Jamia.... read more:

 "Great Time To Be A Benevolent Government": Harsha Bhogle's Facebook Post
Amid protests across the country over the amended citizenship law, cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle has sent out a message to the government and has backed the youth of India. "Winning elections isn't a good enough reason for highlighting differences between us. My naive view of the world tells me that creating opportunities through liberalisation and openness and togetherness could win more elections," Mr Bhogle wrote in a Facebook post.


"This is a great time to be a benevolent government; to think of education, of infrastructure, of technology; to remove barriers, to embrace openness, to free this beautiful generation to take India beyond where we think it can be," he wrote in the 749-word post that is being widely shared on social media.... read more:
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/harsha-bhogles-facebook-post-great-time-to-be-a-benevolent-government-2154037
Over 1000 Scientists, Academics Demand Withdrawal of Citizenship Bill // Citizenship Amendment Bill is a bid to fashion an ethnic democracy
Bengal Imam who lost son to communal clashes calls for peace // Students Across India Rise Up To Protest Citizenship Act And Police Brutality
Deb Mukharji: CAA-NRC: Lessons from the Assam experience  
Jab Hindu Muslim raazi / to kya karega Nazi
The split wide open: India is at risk of alienating allies by citizenship programme
‘Am glad I went’: Ramachandra Guha explains why he joined CAA protests
Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Discrimination, not justice
Advice to the Young
Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
Jairus Banaji on the history of Indian capitalists; and the BJP's assault on human rights
Agenda for Social Democracy
UP Cops Thrash Former Teacher After CAA Protest In Lucknow, Says Lawyer // ‘Detained in police facility, I heard screams all night… It was horrific’
Devangshu Datta: Read Jana Gana Mana, in full
These Are the 25 People Killed During Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act Protests
Us versus us
Ayush Chaturvedi: Main Gandhi ke saath hun // Samar Halarnkar: In the time of Godse, a search for Hindus who will stand with Gandhi

Meet the gold medalist from Pondy University who boycotted convocation in protest against CAA


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