Maha: Cong protests CAA, police crackdown on Jamia students

Locals Congress leaders sat on a hunger strike here in Maharashtra on Thursday to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the police crackdown on students of the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi.

They said the government was trying to divide the country by bringing in the new citizenship law.

Several Congress functionaries, led by city party unit president Ramesh Bagve, sat a hunger strike on Fergusson Road here in the morning.

Bagve condemned the police "brutalities" on students of the Jamia Millia Islamia university on Sunday after their protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

"We condemn the CAA as the government is trying to create a divide in the country by such an Act," he alleged.

He said there was an attempt to divert the attention from real issues.

"The Act is against the principles of the Constitution. There is a clear-cut agenda of the Modi government to destroy the Constitution and create a divide in the society," he said, adding that fight against such an ideology has begun in the country.

When students and youth came on roads against the Act, the police "unleashed brutalities" on them, he said.

"By such actions, the BJP is trying to snatch the right to expression and the right to protest," he said.

Another local Congress functionary, Ramesh Iyer, demanded action against those who used force on the protesting students.

"We also demand that the CAA be revoked at the earliest. Everybody has the right to express themselves and that right should be conserved," he said.

Protests have broken out across the country, including in universities, against the amended act, which seeks to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.