Panaji: In a mega Goa Church backed rally held in Panaji city, the people opposing CAA-NPR-NRC on Friday decided to resort non-cooperation to the government agencies for the purpose of NPR and even for Census 2021.
More than 15,000 people participated in the rally held in Panaji on Friday evening under the banner of Goa Alliance Against CAA-NRC-NPR.
After holding almost three hour long public meeting at historic Azad Maidan in Panaji, the crowd pledged that they will not furnish their information for NPR and even Census 2021.
“We pledge that till the CAA-NPR-NRC is withdrawn, we will not furnish any information whatsoever for the purposes of NPR or even for the purposes of Census 2021,” they pledged.
In a resolution that was taken after the meeting, the Goa Alliance Against CAA-NRC-NPR claimed that act like CAA was aimed at discrimination certain section of society.
The rally was officially supported by Centre for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP), a wing of Goa Church.
Nabila Hassan, who fought the case of Jamia Milia Islamia in the High Court along with Ayesha Renna, a student of the JMI addressed the gathering in Panaji.
Rahul Sonpimple, a student from JNU, Delhi was also present as the guest speaker for the event.
“We the people gathered at the rally organised by Goa Alliance Against CAA-NRC-NPR, at Azad Maidan, Panaji, Goa, on February 21, 2020, firmly resolve to ensure that our constitution and our laws shall always be founded and continue to be founded on the principles of justice, equality, secularism, socialism, democracy,” reads the resolution.
“Therefore, we are against any form of discrimination, directly or indirectly, on grounds of religion, caste, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, age, occupation,” it added.
The protestors further resolved to say no to CAA-NPR-NRC which takes away the core constitutional principles and which makes already vulnerable populations further vulnerable.
“We have noted that the arbitrary grounds for cancellation of OCI registration,” the resolution added.
“We particularly want to stress that Goa has a large number of OCI card holders, because the person has to surrender their Indian Passport on obtaining Portuguese Passport which they are rightfully eligible for,” the gathering resolved.
The resolution further added “we are painfully aware that since land grab has been rampantly affecting the marginalized sections of society, the lethal CAA-NPR-NCR combine would render some citizens as doubtful citizens, who will then be either incarcerated in detention centres, or reduce to voiceless citizens, who cannot question a destructive model of development that displaces them and destroys their livelihood.”
