In Bengaluru, thousands from the Muslim community staged a "Peace Rally".
Peaceful protests were held across the country today, with political parties, students and the civil society coming together against the contentious citizenship law. In Delhi, the Congress held protests at Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, which was attended by senior leaders of the party, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Kamal Nath. At Chennai's Marina Beach, the DMK held a rally attended by thousands after getting clearance from the High Court. In Kolkata, students of the premier Jadavpur University gheraoed the Governor, demanding a dialogue. Multiple rallies were also held in Bengaluru, Kochi and Mumbai.
Here's a 10-point cheatsheet on protests from across the country:
Senior Congress leaders led by Sonia Gandhi sat on a "Satyagraha" at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat, demanding that the rights of the people as enshrined in the Constitution be protected. All the leaders read out the preamble at the Satyagraha.
In Kerala's Kochi, separate groups -- including a collective of film and cultural personalities -- held marches in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Shouting slogans, director and chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy Kamal, award winning actress Nimisha Sajayan, directors Rajiv Ravi and Ashiq Abu and actress Reema Kallingal joined the march.
Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was shown black flags on Monday by a section of students at the Jadavpur University, where he went to attend a meeting as its chancellor. The students, mostly belonging to the CPI(M)-backed SFI, Arts Faculty Students Union (AFSU), AISA and FETSU surrounded his car and shouted slogans when he reached the main gate of the campus around 2 pm, where he was stuck for around 30 minutes.
In Bengaluru, thousands from the Muslim community staged a "Peace Rally". The rally, called by around 35 organisations under the banner of Joint Action Committee of Bengaluru, ended at the Quddus Saheb Eidgah Maidan.
The DMK and its allies held a huge protest rally, mobilising apolitical sections of the society. DMK chief MK Stalin led the rally and leaders of alliance parties, including senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, joined in.
"The Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Registry of Citizens are against the Constitution. They would lead to chaos and should be scrapped," DMK's Kanimozhi told NDTV. "CAA and NRC are against minorities, particularly Muslims," she added.
Several Chief Ministers have already refused to allow the implementation of the citizenship law in their states. While initially the list included Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Punjab's Amarinder Singh and Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan, five others have joined in.
The new states to shut doors to the law include Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Left-ruled Kerala. Even BJP ally Nitish Kumar and Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, who has earlier given issue-based support to BJP, have refused to implement it in their states.
Today, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy also got on board.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his Rajasthan counterpart Ashok Gehlot said their governments will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Congress-ruled states as it was against the basic principles of the Constitution.
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