India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 19—The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which started from Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University on December 15 last year and subsequently engulfed the entire country, has now spread overseas, with Indian community in several European and American countries holding protest against the contentious CAA and the proposed NRC.
Among the protesters overseas include students, businessmen and employees working there. Anti-CAA protests have been held in several foreign universities as well including Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard.
Despite chilling winter, a large number of Indian community held a protest against CAA in Berlin, Munich and other cities and towns of Germany, holding placards opposing CAA and shouting slogans demanding repeal of the law which discriminates among Indian society on basis of religion.
According to reports, there is no university in England which has not witnessed protest against CAA and NRC by Indian students there.
Sumeet Bose(33), a merchant navy officer for a short-term course in Blackpool in England, was quoted by Indiatoday.in having said that there were not many Indian students there but you could have a protest even if you could get just one person on a common issue. Sumeet and his two classmates stood for two hours in biting cold to protest against CAA and NRC.
In Switzerland, Harshal Kate, a 29-year-old researcher, hailing from Alibaug in West Bengal, removed his clothes in front of Swiss National Bank and was wearing only shorts to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that rioters can be identified by their clothes.
According to Kate, Indians in Europe and US were shocked after seeing the videos of police attacks on students in Jamia, AMU and Jawaharlal Nehru University and hence, they decided to protest because they are also minorities in the countries where they are living.
Indians at several places in Australia also protested against CAA by distributed handbills giving details about what was CAA and NRC and why it should be withdrawn.
Over four dozens of people also protested in Warsaw in Poland. According to Sindhuja Sankaran, an assistant professor of social psychology at Jagiellonian University, Krakow in Poland, Indians protested because they see CAA and NRC threat to democracy and secularism. She says that people connected with each other for protest through social media.
