Dalits, Tribals, labour unions hold massive rally against CAA in Malwa, demand resolution from MP govt  

Amidst a growing movement against NPR-NRC-CAA in Nimad region of Madhya Pradesh, Barwani saw its first unified protest by Dalit, Adivasi, and Labour organisations, Student Unions, with protesters from rural as well as urban regions participating in large numbers. The protest, organised under the banner of Samvidhan Jan Bachao Andolan, demanded that the Madhya Pradesh government pass a resolution in its legislative assembly to not implement the NPR and effectively stop the NRC process in its tracks in the state. According to the protesters, the trio of National Population Register, National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act are part of a single unconstitutional and anti-people process. Therefore, the movement to oppose the three necessarily requires all constitution abiding ordinary citizens to come together in defence of the constitutional values of Liberty, Equity and Unity.

Citizens from Adivasi and rural regions came together with urban citizens in organising a massive rally against that turned into a demonstration in Barwani’s Jhanda Chowk. The protest demonstration saw the involvement of Adivasi organisations like Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, and Adivasi Mukti Sangathan, youth organisations like Adivasi Chhatra Sangathan (ACS) and Jay Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS), Dalit organisations like Bhim Army amongst other social movements and unions like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Century Mill etc.

Social Activists and Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, Harsh Mander and Medha Patkar from Narmada Bachao Andolan also addressed the protest demonstration. This government had no shame asking for votes from us, but today they are asking us to prove our citizenship to them? This is not acceptable for us, Ham kaagaz nahin dikhayenge! (we will not show our papers), they unanimously echoed the sentiment.

In his address to the protesters, Yogendra Yadav said, “The Prime Minister says, that you can identify protesters by their clothes, I wish the prime minister was here today in Barwani to witness Adivasi women, youth and other citizens coming together to protest,” He added, “unfortunately for us, the prime minister can only see skullcaps and hijaabs as clothes, how better would it be if he could see another piece of cloth: our tricolour”

Former IAS and well-known social activist Harsh Mander explained in detail the state of detention centres in Assam and the conditions people faced due to the faulty exercise of NPR-NRC in the state. He went on to elaborate on the kind of clerical errors which subjected citizens to be sent to detention centres, whereby they lost all their democratic and constitutional rights as a citizen on mere spelling mistakes in papers or failing to furnish papers. He also clarified how it was mostly migrant Dalit and Adivasi labourers who had their names excluded from the final NRC, thus the NPR and NRC cannot be an issue of a single community but affects the whole of India.

According to Harsingh Jamre who was one of the protesting Adivasis, “In the name of incomplete government documents, we are kept bereft of our rightful entitlements and legal rights. We are all too well aware of the corruption and many obstacles hardworking people face when we try to get these documents made. We reject such an exercise through NPR and NRC by the government, which whilst denying people of their constitutional rights, ask people to give proof of their citizenship. Our lands, our labour is the proof of our citizenship”. People, who work day and night in the fields to feed the nation, people who are exploited in the name of progress as labourers do not need to furnish proof of their citizenship. It is the government that needs to prove to its allegiance to the country, can it deliver on demands of people for employment, fair prices for their produce, their rights to education and health, he asked.

Terming the Citizenship Amendment Act as unconstitutional and anti-people, the protests dismissed it as an attempt by the BJP-led Central Government to fuel communal and divisive politics of hate. Amidst the slogans of ‘Samvidhan Bachao, Desh Bachao’ the protesters said, ‘We have always fought for our constitutional rights in our communities, and thus all of us today have united to fight against this attack on the Constitution. If we do not oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act, the government will continue to wage war against our Constitution, threatening all our democratic and constitutional rights. Thus, this is the start of our unified movement against the NPR-NRC-CAA, and it will not end until the government listens to our demands.”