A New Beginning
Reflecting upon the Blanket of Saffron that has enveloped India under BJP rule
“With a new year comes a new beginning”. We will soon leave behind the cherished year of 2019 and ready ourselves for not only the fresh new year but the fresh new decade starting on the 1st of January 2020.
While people would love to leave the past in the past, how exactly do you leave behind the decisions affecting your future? The year of 2019 has been a flurry of rather drastic changes starting with the re-election of the BJP Government. With Prime Minister Modi at the helm of decision making, human rights violations seem to have skyrocketed, starting with the abrogation of Article 370 and the perpetual state of violence that plagues Kashmir. While the outrage at the decision seemed to have dissipated, the question unasked remains — ‘What comes next?’
The BJP government seemed to be pushing out more and more outrageous Bills as the year went on. We saw the Surrogacy Bill that allowed only married couples the provision of birth through surrogacy, depriving a number of people the chance to have children; the Transgender Persons Bill, denying the whole community their basic rights, and finally to end the year with a rather horrifying bang — The Citizenship Amendment Bill.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (2019) was passed to amend the Citizenship Act (1955). It states that refugees who entered the country before 31st December 2014 will not be treated as illegal immigrants. However, the catch here is that only people belonging to the religions of Hindu, Sikh, Parsi or Christian are protected by this amendment. The bill is only applicable to refugees from the countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
The Government of India, on the claim of secularism, has opened their arms to people crossing these borders due to suppression of their faith. However, they failed to include the Muslim refugees that have crossed our borders.
The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill started in states of North-east India. The People of Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland rose up in protest, but the rage soon moved to Assam. People in Assam banded together in thousands to stand against the government passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill and the National Register of Citizenship. With the CAB now signed and passed, there would be an influx of Bangladeshi Hindus that would become permanent residents in Assam. The Bill is also a method to quell the growing population of Muslims in the state. The Finance Minister of Assam even made a statement about how the Bill would be ‘rescuing’ assembly seats from Muslim immigrants.
As of now, the state of Assam remains under political turmoil. A curfew has been imposed and armed forces are attempting to suppress any form of dissent shown by the people.
Standing in solidarity with the Assam protests, the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University conducted a peaceful protest on 13th December. However, violence soon made its appearance in the form of Delhi Police Forces banging down the University gate. There are a number of accounts of the brutal treatment the Police used to suppress the protests. Accounts of tear gas, opening fire on students, beating up students in the library, and sexual violence against women in the hostels. Many of the protesters were detained. The same happened at Aligarh Muslim University.
Students and people all over the country have openly shown their outrage at the events that have taken place over the last week. A number of protests were held in Universities in Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Kerala, Mumbai.
The students of Savitribai Phule University staged a demonstration on the 16th of December and were joined by students from surrounding universities. The demonstration was a preview to the protest being held on the 18th of December as a show of solidarity to the students of JMI and AMU. The demonstration had a number of students come up and speak out about the issues caused by both CAA and NRC. Slogans like “Jai Bheem” and “Hum Ek Hai”, alongside calls for freedom were yelled into the crowd.
While the constant suppression of dissent by the government might seem disheartening, change never did come around that easy. As a country, India has had a long history of governments with agendas that do not always coincide with the needs of the people, or those that suppressed the people for their own needs and power. However, the country is and will always belong to the people. There have always been people standing up for what is right. We can only bring about change if we make it known to the government that the people will not stand by their decision and that the people will not cooperate. I wish you all the best, my fellow protesters and hope with the new year we truly bring about a new beginning.
Written by Aanchal Pannu. Edited by Aayush Agarwal. Cover Image Courtesy: Younus Nomani.
