Left parties to organise anti-CAA rally in Kolkata today

The rally will begin at Moulali Ramlila Park at 12 pm and end at Park Circus.

Widespread protests against the CAA, which will grant citizenship to all non-Muslim refugees who came to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2015, are taking place across the nation.

The protests in West Bengal had turned violent last week with the agitators setting vehicles on fire, destroying public properties, vandalising railway tracks and stations.

Regarding the CAA, CPI-M leader Md. Salim told IBNS, "It is the question of people's unity first, secondly the constitutional values that make India and the idea of India that is endangered because Bengal has already suffered from partition so they now what refugee means."

The Left chose this day to protest because on Dec 19, 1927, Ram Prasad Bismil, who rendered the stirring patriotic call rousing the Indian people in the freedom struggle, Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna was hanged at the Gorakhpur jail.  Ashfaqulla Khan, a co-accused, was hanged at the Faizabad jail and another co-accused Roshan Singh was hanged at the Naini jail.

Considering CAA along with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s attempts to convert India into a "Hindu Rashtra", the CPI-M said in a statement, "The passage of this Bill, along with the proclamations by this Modi-Shah BJP government to extend the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to the entire country, is the twin combination to change the character of the Indian Republic – from a secular democratic one into an “Hindutva Rashtra”, the RSS political project."

The Left parties will also hold rallies in other parts of the country.

(Image Credit: IBNS File)