Indian citizenship law protesters, who have been sitting in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area for almost two months now, invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday to collect a gift and hold a heart-to-heart talk with them on the eve of St Valentine’s Day.
The protesters have designed a special invitation for Modi in which they mention that by “This Valentine, the people of Shaheen bagh extended a heart-felt invitation to the prime minister to come to Shaheen bagh and celebrate the festival of love, together”.
They have further mentioned that they will also unveil a ‘love’ song dedicated to Modi and have also planned for a special gift for him.
— Fareeha Iftikhar (@Iftikharfariha) February 12, 2020
These protesters, most of them Muslim women, have been staging a sit-in protest for over 50 days, demanding that the citizenship law be rolled back and have blocked a major road connecting Delhi to Noida.
The country has witnessed massive protests and clashes with police in different parts of the country in recent weeks against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Enacted in December 2019, the CAA grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who faced persecution at home and arrived in India on or before 31 December 2014. The law, however, excludes Muslims, something which has angered many people, who view it as discriminatory and unconstitutional - something the federal government has strongly denied, insisting that the CAA doesn't take away any Indian's citizenship, but merely grants it to others.
