Amid uproar over Citizenship Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC), Students Federation of India (SFI), Jammu and Kashmir student association and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) on Wednesday staged protest at Gandhi Park in Dehradun against the newly-enacted law.
"NRC and CAA were dividing the Country on the basis of religion. The CAA is not acceptable at any cost. This is the time to stand up to injustice and protect each other from state terror," said Himanshu Chuhan, State Secretary (SFI).
Slamming the newly implemented legislation, Indresh Maikhuri, an activist said, "We oppose NRC and CCA as they are against the very spirit of Country."
Speaking on the protest Jammu and Kashmir Students Association spokesperson Nasir Khuehami said, "We demand the immediate release of activists and students and the way they were arrested and brutalised is totally condemnable in harshest words"
"One hand they talk about safeguarding language, culture, identity and the land of Assamese people, on the other hand, they want to bring illegal Bangladeshis through the CAA. This act explicitly and blatantly seeks to enshrine religious discrimination into law, contrary to the secular constitutional ethos of India," he added.
Protests had erupted in several parts of the country, over the Act, which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghstan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
( With inputs from ANI )