Over a hundred doctors in Kerala’s Kozhikode protested against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, and National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Sunday. The doctors under the banner of Secular Doctors Collective held an anti CAA-NRC protest march in continuation of the various protests happening across the country on the issue.
About 120 doctors, working in private and government sector, carried placards that had the text of Preamble to the Indian Constitution. The protest also saw the participation of Dr KP Aravindan, former President of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad Dr Kadheeja Mumtaz, vice president of the organisation.
Speaking to TNM after the protest march, Dr Suresh KK, one of the organisers of the protest, said, “India’s secularism and the fundamentals of the Constitution are under threat like never before. Apart from registering our protest as citizens of this country, we felt it is important to register our dissent over this as a medical fraternity. It is for this purpose we formed a collective called Secular Doctors Collective,” tells Dr Suresh.
Following the march in Kozhikode city near Mananchira, the doctors also conducted a gathering near the Kozhikode Public Library, and read out the Preamble to the Indian Constitution.
“However small our protest might be, we felt, we should also be part of this history in the making,” Dr Suresh added.
Various political parties held protest demonstrations in Kerala against the controversial CAA on Sunday. While protests against the anti CAA-NRC in Kerala have been comparatively peaceful, more than 15 people have been killed across the country, many due to police firing.
CAA allows granting of Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants who are Hindus, Christians, Sikh, Buddhists, Jains or Parsis from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. With Muslims immigrants, left out of the CAA, critics call the law discriminatory and anti-Muslim.
Read: