Shaheen Bagh Protesters to Defy Janata Curfew Call of PM Modi
People argue that Modi should have imposed such curfew to stop government-led pogrom in Delhi when dozens of innocent people were killed and hundreds of others were injured, mostly with bullet wounds.
By Rakesh Raman
The protesters at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh have decided to defy the call for a ‘Janata Curfew’ given by PM Narendra Modi to check the spread of coronavirus (a.k.a. COVID-19) pandemic.
The protesters who have been sitting around the clock for the past 3 months to oppose the discriminatory citizenship laws say they will continue their stir despite Modi’s advice.
They add that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR) announced by the Modi government are more dangerous for millions of Indian citizens than the coronavirus.
Modi has urged the citizens to observe ‘Janata Curfew’ on Sunday, 22 March, 2020, from 7 AM to 9 PM and avoid coming out of the homes except for essential services. As Modi is an uneducated, clueless man, he has simply ignored the fact that millions of people are homeless in India.
How will they stay at home and how will Modi stop the spread of coronavirus through these poor, homeless people? As Modi has given an utterly useless advice, the Shaheen Bagh protesters have ignored it.
People also argue that Modi should have imposed such curfew to stop government-led pogrom in Delhi when dozens of innocent people were killed and hundreds of others were injured, mostly with bullet wounds.
Modi kept quiet and allowed the barbaric carnage to happen in Delhi during February and because of Modi’s tacit support to rioters, thousands of people have been rendered homeless in addition to a large number of murders.
Plus, Modi’s ‘Janata Curfew’ announcement is only a stunt to gain cheap publicity out of a hot topic such as coronavirus. Modi is issuing only random statements while the Modi government has no data to combat the disease.
If Modi is so serious to save people of the country, he should make similar announcements to stop air pollution which kills more than 1 million people every year in India. In Delhi alone, nearly 4,000 people die every year because of pollution which poses a far more serious threat than coronavirus.
While protesters have decided to ignore Modi’s ‘Janata Curfew’ call, they say they are taking sufficient precautions to save themselves from coronavirus. These include reducing the number of people at the protest site and using sanitizers to stay clean from coronavirus which has been declared a pandemic disease.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications and research reports on different subjects.
