Left parties to oppose CAA, NRC, NPR on March 23

The Left parties have decided to observe March 23, marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, to oppose Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary , CPI(M); D. Raja, General Secretary, CPI; Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(ML)-Liberation; Debabrata Biswas, General Secretary, AIFB and Manoj Bhattacharya, RSP issued a statement regarding the same.

"The police under the BJP is being used to advance its communal polarization and mount attacks on the democratic rights of the people to organize peaceful protests. The brazen attacks at Jamia Millia University, Aligarh Muslim University followed by the attack by masked goons under police protection at JNU, continued with vicious attacks in Uttar Pradesh, other BJP ruled states and in Delhi," Left parties wrote in the statement.

"All our units will jointly work out programmes in the state capitals and at district headquarters. Marches from different parts shall be organised to culminate at a central venue where political leaders, cultural personalities and activists, intellectuals and people's movements shall hold a public meeting and a cultural programme. An oath on the enclosed pledge shall be taken at the end of the function," read the statement.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.