CAA: The Peaceful Protests by Muslims That No One Is Talking About – By Mahtab Alam
From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Union home minister Amit Shah, several senior BJP leaders and some of their opponents like Yashwant Sinha, all have been talking about the ‘violent’ protests by Muslims against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC). Moreover, many media outlets, especially TV channels, have covered the protests in a manner which suggests that wherever there is large mobilisation of Muslims, violence is inevitable.
This is far from the truth and ground reality. There has been large scale mobilisation by Muslims across the country and all of them had been peaceful. Jamia students were protesting for several days before the protest turned violent and hit the headlines. None of the people arrested by the Delhi Police for the violence reported during the protests were Jamia students, suggesting the violence was instigated by outsiders, not the protestors.
The ongoing protests by thousands of Muslim women in Shaheen Bagh, which has received considerable media attention, is a case in point. Similarly, the protest in East Delhi (Seelampur) was initially peaceful but took a violent turn after the police started pushing them back. Ever since the law was passed by both houses of parliament, there have been dozens of large scale peaceful protests by Muslims in different parts of the country. The participants in the protests ranged from 5,000-10,000 to 2 lakh-3 lakh people. But they have hardly received any coverage or the attention they deserve. The ‘mainstream’ media, especially those headquartered in the National Capital Region, turned a blind eye towards these for several reasons.…
https://thewire.in/rights/caa-peaceful-protests-muslims
SEE ALSO:
- Ahimsa 2.0: Subcontinent is witnessing revival of non-violent movements, to protect constitutional values – By Christophe Jaffrelot (Dec 28, 2019, Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/christophe-jaffrelot-on-caa-nrc-protest-caa-protest-christophe-jaffrelot-on-non-violence-christophe-jaffrelot-on-gandhis-india-citizenship-amendment-b - Modi’s Legacy May Be Instability and Stagnation – By Sadanand Dhume (Dec 26, 2019, Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/modis-legacy-may-be-instability-and-stagnation-11577400177 - CAA, NRC Protests: Never Too Late to Do the Right Thing – By Gautam Navlakha (Dec 26, 2019, News Click)
https://www.newsclick.in/CAA-NRC-protests-never-too-late-right-thing - Did Delhi Police Give Jamia CAA Protests Political Twist in FIRs? – By Poonam Agarwal (Dec 23, 2019, The Quint)
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/jamia-caa-nrc-protests-delhi-police-political-colour-fir
