They sing in a loud voice with the same vigour as they shout slogans. They clap their hands while they sing. The onlookers might feel they would stop with one more song or one more round of raising slogans, but they don’t. The fervour is high as they switch from one to the next.
These protesters have gathered outside the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram for an indefinite strike declaring solidarity with the Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Population Registrar (NPR).
The group, though consisting mostly of young students, have three-and-a-half-year-old Adam to 73-year-old Kamalamma in it. Kamalamma sings and raises slogans with them sitting on a chair while the students sit on the ground.
The slogans that one can hear in every anti-CAA-NRC protest, reverberate here as well, ranging from ‘Put CAA and NRC in the Bay of Bengal’, ‘Let CAA, NRC be destroyed’, ‘Let Fascism be destroyed’, etc. The air is filled with the old revolutionary songs of Kerala that have the connotation, to change laws - mattuvin chattangale.
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“There have been lots of protests happening across the country in solidarity with the Shaheen Bagh protest. We thought conducting a one-day event won’t be enough and hence decided to do an indefinite protest. This is particularly the need of the hour when we live in the middle of threats,” Medha S, a researcher based out of Thiruvananthapuram, tells TNM.
The protest, like scores of them against CAA and NRC, is one without a particular leader and has been organised through social media groups.
Rahul R, an engineering graduate from Kollam, who came from the neighbouring district to join the protest, says that he may not able to join the protest there in Shaheen Bagh and hence came to be part of the one in Thiruvananthapuram.
“We have been witnessing so many such protests. Our mothers and sisters are on the streets to protest. I will support the cause till the end,” he says.
On Sunday, February 2, the protest by women at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, completed 50 days.
Kamalamma says that she has been to several protests in her lifetime, but this is something unique.
“I will do whatever I can to support the cause, we all need to live in the country right?” she asks.
The people who are part of the protest, organised a mass rally and public meeting earlier at Gandhi Park in Thiruvananthapuram against CAA and NRC. Activist Medha Patkar addressed the public meeting.
“It’s enthusing to see that students are at the forefront of this Shaheen Bagh protest too. Protests are spaces for everyone to come and join. I have come as a representative of mothers,” Shaila K John, an activist says.