After nearly two months of demonstrations, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday, February 1, said the Central government is ready to talk to Shaheen Bagh protesters -- mainly women camping at Kalindi Kunj-Shaheen Bagh stretch against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
"Government is ready to talk to protesters of Shaheen Bagh but then it should be in a structured form and the Narendra Modi government is ready to communicate with them and clear all their doubts they have against CAA," the Minister tweeted.
The proposal for dialogue comes days before the scheduled Delhi Assembly elections.
Shaheen Bagh has been the site of a protest where a large number of anti-CAA protesters, primarily women and children, have been camping since December 15.
Ripples of Shaheen Bagh
In line with the Shaheen Bagh protests, hundreds of women had also taken to streets in south Mumbai's Nagpada area on the night of January 26 against the contentious CAA and NRC.
Holding placards, the women raised slogans like "We all are one" and "Azadi" despite the best efforts of the police to convince people to cooperate. The site of the protest is now being called "Mumbai Bagh". It was organised by the Joint Action Committee on the Morland road outside Arabia Hotel.
All women's protest in UP
Over 100 women protested in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal on January 26 against the and NPR. The women protesting at Pakka Bagh Kheda in Nakhasa area raised slogans such as "Hum leke rahenge azadi, CAA se azadi, RSS se azadi, "Gandhi wali azadi" and are demanding rollback of the law.
Local Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq, who visited the protesters, assured them of his support. He said, "the government wants to make Muslims second class citizens."
Terming CAA and NRC "undemocratic" and "anti-Muslim", women members of local MLA Iqbal Mahmood's family have also joined the protest.
Barq said the sit-in would continue until the Centre withdraws CAA.
