Painful to be homeless and stateless Chief minister Mamata Banerjee's latest rally was from Rajabazar to Mullickbazar on Thursday

Subhojoy Roy, TT, 27.12.19, Calcutta: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee marched from Rajabazar to Mullickbazar on Thursday — the latest in her series of rallies to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Thousands marched with her and hundreds more stood by the roadside to catch a glimpse of the rally. Subhojoy Roy of Metro spoke to some who walked 

Pritam Kar’s (centre) grandparents left everything and came to Calcutta at the time of Partition. The 19-year-old commerce student of Bangabasi College doesn’t want anyone to suffer a similar trauma of leaving one’s own home.

“I can understand how painful it can be for someone to become homeless and stateless. I have heard stories… how difficult it was for my grandparents to run the family in a new place where they had nothing,” the Kankurgachhi resident said.

The teenager wore his identity on his shirt — “East Bengal” written in Bengali. He said he feared if NRC and CAA were to be implemented across the country, many people would face the same situation his grandparents had faced seven decades ago.

Sarbari Begum from Rajabazar, who is with an NGO that works on human rights, was at the rally for Mamata. “She is fighting so much for us. I felt I should come and show my support,” she said. Sarbari brought along her daughter Anusha Firdaus, 9, to make her understand the reason for the rally. It will be impossible for the old and the poor to preserve documents that would prove their citizenship, she said. 

Mohammad Shajahan and his friend (right) Mohammad Amir recently returned from Saudi Arabia after a four-year stint with a catering company. Under normal circumstances they would have gone back to Saudi Arabia. “But given the current situation, we don’t want to leave our family behind and go,” Amir said. Shajahan said he grew up buying grocery from a shop owned by a Hindu. The laundry shop in his neighbourhood belongs to a Hindu. “They are like my relatives. None of us thinks who is a Muslim and who is a Hindu.”

Asif Ali, a Delhi University law student, shudders to think about the fate of the tens of thousands of people when CAA and NRC are linked. “Thousands will not be able to furnish such old documents and they will instantly be stateless.”

Mohammad Rehman (left), a driver by profession, said this was his life’s first rally. It was the cause, he said. “I do not support CAA or NRC... it is impossible for the poor who don’t have a proper home to preserve their birth documents.”