Last month
we witnessed students and responsible citizens mobilizing on a national level
to fight against CAA and NRC. Amongst the thousands of students who took to the
streets, I also attended a protest. In fact, this was one of my first ever
protest experiences. I participated in the anti-CAA protest conducted in
Calicut, Kerala on the 19th of December, 2019. I don’t know if my experience
was unique or if this is just how protests work in Kerala. Anyway, here’s how it
went.
As soon as
the rally started, so did the slogan chanting. The first slogan was “HELLO
MISTER AMIT SHAH”. Initially, a leader shouted it out and it was later repeated
by the procession following her. I anticipated some witty and harsh slogan to
follow the initial greeting. However, surprisingly, it was followed up by “HELLO
MISTER MODI”.
By then, I got
pretty confused with what was going on. Did I accidentally end up in a pro-CAA protest?
Confirmed
with a few people standing next to me, if I’m at the right place. Indeed, I
was. The same set of Slogans were repeated for about 20-25 minutes before
somebody pointed out to the woman yelling the slogans that she has just been
greeting the Prime minister and his best friend who passed the bill.
Now, I know
you all are thinking that they must have started yelling anti-CAA slogans after
this. Oops! You are nowhere close. The next slogan they started yelling was “ISLAMOPHOBIA”.
For a second, I went blank. A bunch of anti-CAA protestors shouting “ISLAMOPHOBIA”?
Weird! Why do they want Islamophobia?
Later, I
got home and realized that they meant to probably say “STOP ISLAMOPHOBIA”.
However, my first protest experience left me extremely confused.
