the goan I network
MARGAO
Lodging their strong protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a meeting of citizens at the Lohia Maidan on Monday rejected the law and also the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The meeting strongly and vociferously condemned the police atrocities on students of Jamia Milia and the attack by goondas on students of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
While condemning the law as an “unconstitutional Act of the Indian Parliament”, the meeting demanded for its immediate withdrawal since it violated the basic secular character of the Indian Constitution.
The citizens further demanded that the BJP government at the Centre henceforth take care to preserve the secular character and spirit of the Constitution and resolved to continue their fight to preserve the secular fabric of India where all citizens, irrespective of religion, caste, creed, region and political affiliations have equal rights to live and prosper.
Addressing the meeting, Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat called upon the people to remain united to send a strong signal to Delhi to reconsider the CAA immediately. He said the Congress party has already made it clear that the states ruled by the party will not implement the CAA, while demanding that the government should stop ‘dadagiri’.
He pointed out that the founding fathers including Babasaheb Ambedkar had given the Constitution wherein citizenship was never linked to religion. “When the British had left the country, their leaders had predicted that India would soon disintegrate, but they were proved wrong as people, irrespective of religions, worked together for the progress of the country,” he said.
Demanding to know how the CAA could be linked to religion, Kamat welcomed the decision of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to request the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider the CAA.
In his address, Aam Aadmi Party leader, Elvis Gomes, said it was heartening to note that the people of India, including Goa, have decided not to allow discrimination on the basis of religion.
He warned that the people will continue to agitate on the streets till the Centre withdraws the CAA. Terming the government in Goa as fake, Gomes said this fake government was taken for a ride for 12 days by a fake minister from UP.
He also condemned the attack on the students of JNU and Jamia Millia University.
In his address, former IAS officer, Arvind Bhatikar, said the Modi-Shah duo has touched the secularism enshrined in the Constitution given by the people of India around 70 years ago. “We are opposed to the CAA for the reason that the government cannot discriminate citizens on the basis of religion,” he said and accused the Modi-Shah duo of trying to change the character of Indian society.
