Bengaluru: In the IT capital Bengaluru, hundreds of students, volunteers and Left party workers defied the prohibitory orders in force in the city and converged on the Puttanachety Town Hall and the Mysore Bank Circle Thursday morning to continue their fifth day of protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by parliament recently.
Around 200 of the protestors, who were joined by prominent historian, Ramachandra Guha in their "Naavu Bharatiyaru” and “Hum Bharath ke log" agitation were rounded up by the police and taken away in buses as they refused to disperse.
While Mr Guha was detained as he was talking to the media outside the Town Hall, condemning the Union government for introducing a legislation like the CAA, a large number of volunteers, including teenagers and young women were dragged into buses by the police as they resisted arrest. There were reports of three male cops manhandling a girl student and of another student suffering a dislocated shoulder in a scuffle with the police. But the policemen involved were reportedly reprimanded by a senior officer.
As student organisations, involved in the protest were helped by advocates from the Alternative Law Forum and senior advocate, Tahir and his team, several members of the Left parties arrived to protest against the CAA near the Mysore Bank Circle. As many as a hundred people, who included a large number of women activists, joined the demonstration.
The police, who detained them, took them in BMTC buses and other vehicles to the Audugodi City Armed Reserve (CAR) ground,where they were held till late in the afternoon and served lunch.
A clearly disturbed Mr Guha tweeted in protest, "dear police commissioner, your government's decision has brought disgrace to this ‘international destination.’
This was to be a peaceful protest by citizens, who wish to uphold the values of our Constitution. You have used a colonial-era law to suppress us and our voices. This message that you cannot have a peaceful gathering in Bengaluru will come back to haunt those in Delhi who are responsible for it. This only shows they are paranoid, insecure people."
One of the protesters sitting in a bus after being detained, recalled that it was on December 19, many years ago that Muslims returned to Mewad in Haryana from Pakistan after a call from Mahatma Gandhi. On the same day, freedom fighters, Ashwaq Ulla Khan and others went to the gallows. “And on the same day now, the rights of the citizens are being taken away,” he regretted.
