Hyderabad: The ongoing fight against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will take a poetic touch as prominent Urdu poets from across the country will gather in Hyderabad on the eve of Republic Day and voice people’s concern against the threat to country’s secular constitution.
The protest meeting in the evening will be addressed by Majlis floor leader in state assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi and several other MLAs, leaders of Muslim organisations including Jamat-e-Islami, Ahle Hadith, Jamiatula Ulema and Tameer-e-Millat.
Later, top of the chart poets including Rahat Indori, Sampat Saral, Manzar Bhopali and Lata Haya will recite their poems and Ghazals at the Mushaira on Saturday night. As the clock strikes midnight, Owaisi will hoist national flag and national anthem will be sung by all the participants.
Originally the event was to be held at Charminar in the heart of Hyderabad’s old city. “But police rejected permission for protest meeting at the historic monument. “They advised us to instead move to nearby Khilwat Ground, which we have accepted,” Owaisi said.
A midnight celebration of Republic Day will be an unprecedented event in the city, reflecting the deep concerns of the people over the issue of citizenship.
While the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had opposed the protest meeting of the united Muslim Action Committee, a public interest litigation was also filed in Telangana High Court objecting to the meeting at Charminar.
State BJP president K Lakshman alleged that the MIM was trying to create communal tension by organising such meetings.
Meanwhile, flash protests were continuing in different parts of the city. The latest was a sit-in by women in a private area in Moghulpura on Thursday night, on the lines of continuing mass sit in by women in Shaheen Bagh area of Delhi. But the protest was foiled by the city police by dispersing the women.
