Today, December 19, is a day of protests across India against the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Hundreds of thousands of people got out on streets, there is a clampdown on media and newspapers. Section 144 of the Criminal Penal Code, which prohibits an assembly of more than four people in an area, has been imposed across Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Telecom companies, Airtel and Vodafone said that they have been asked to suspend operations in Delhi. The country has seen the highest number of internet blocks in the world so far this year and Indians are taking to social media to react with #IndiaAgainstCAA and #Section144.
Prominent activists who joined the protests were detained.
Many Delhi Metro stations were also closed in view of the protests.
Over 40 protesters were detained in Ahmedabad and police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in old city of Lucknow. Prominent activists who joined the protests were detained. Historian Ram Guha was among those detained.
Tweep @d_extrovert posted: “No one in the entire world will believe that Ram Guha was throwing stones or burning buses. Enough is enough. This is not what India deserves.”
Some non-muslim women joined wearing a headscarf, to stand in solidarity with Muslims who were left out of the CAA.
Many people who tweeted against the new amendment said that it was a big mistake by the Bharatiya Janata Party, just like demonitisation. @SandeepUnnithan posted: "Uncanny parallels between demonetisation and the planned #NRC. NRC will do to India what #demonetisation did to the economy- a massive exercise aimed at unearthing black money, with dubious gains. #NRC will take our focus from just about everything else..."
