WASHINGTON – A large number of Indian-Americans gathered around the statue of Mahatma Gandhi installed in front of the Indian Embassy here and held a peaceful demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
According to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.
“We are here for only a single purpose. That purpose is civil rights and religious freedom and nothing more than that,” Indian-American Mike Ghouse from the Washington-based non-governmental organisation Centre for Pluralism told the gathering, which included women, children and students.
Organised by American-Indian Muslims in association with over a dozen similar bodies, peaceful protesters from in and around the Greater Washington Area on Sunday shouted slogans in favour of India’s unity and displayed posters and banners alleging that the country was headed in a direction that was not secular in nature and violated the ethos of the Constitution.
The protesters also passed a resolution requesting the Indian government to withdraw both the NRC and the CAA.
“All we want the (Indian government) is to repeal the laws that have been enacted recently, so that we all can be one India, one people and nation so that we can work together, live together and not worry and not have any tensions about who is who,” Ghouse said.
According to the resolution, both the CAA and the NRC are likely to push India backward as a nation. “We, therefore, resolve that the BJP government should withdraw both these legislations at the earliest,” said the resolution, a copy of which was submitted to the Indian Embassy.
