CAA Protests: Students and Workers' group protest outside Indian High Commission in UK

Amid the ongoing protests in India over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), protests have been held overseas as well. Hundreds of students and representatives from diaspora and workers' groups gathered outside the Indian High Commission in London on Wednesday to protest against the CAA and National Register for Citizens (NRC). 

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'Inqalab Zindabad'

The protest was organized by the India Society of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and supported by other universities including the London School of Economics (LSE). Slogans such as Inqalab Zindabad were raised along with the placards against the Indian government's move to impose the CAA.

"This hurriedly approved bill has at a stroke removed rights, especially from Muslim migrants. It undermines the basis of India's secular democratic constitution, said Harsev Bains, National Vice President of Indian Workers' Association Great Britain (IWA-GB), an 80-year-old diaspora group.

"We as patriotic Indians feel let down and angered that our great country, that led the way in diversity and tolerance, should act in such a manner. Refugees from all over the world have always been welcomed and accommodated in India. Never before has India introduced exceptions and exclusions based on faith, he said.

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Top educational institutions across the world such as Oxford, Harward, Yale and MIT witnessed protests where students and scholars staged demonstrations against the suppression by police on students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The students and scholars at Oxford University staged a protest march to India House in London against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the police action on students. 

"We condemn the violence unleashed on students in Jamia and AMU among other Indian institutions. The use of police force against students exercising their fundamental right to protests in the university spaces and elsewhere is a direct attack on foundations of a democratic society," according to a joint statement issued by students, scholars and alumni of the University of Oxford.

(With inputs from PTI)

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