Anti-CAA, NPR protesters reclaim Mumbai Bagh site

There was drama and confusion at Morland Road on Saturday evening when Mumbai Police tried unsuccessfully to disperse the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment)

There was drama and confusion at Morland Road on Saturday evening when Mumbai Police tried unsuccessfully to disperse the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Population Register (NPR) that local Muslim women had started on January 26. Mumbai Bagh, as the protest site has been named, is modelled on Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. At 5pm on Saturday, a message was circulated that Mumbai Bagh had been called off. Police vehicles gathered at the site around this time. A police official said, “We have been telling them to not protest on the site since day one because this is not a protest site, but they haven’t been listening to us.”

HT Image

Most of the women participating in Mumbai Bagh – many with children in tow – are local residents. As police vehicles advanced into Morland Road, protesters formed a human chain. “The police made an announcement asking us to vacate the street. We were also threatened with arrest and lathi-charge. But we decided to not budge,” said Saeeda Ansari, a homemaker and protester.

Barricades were set up to corral the protesters while more women joined the protest. The protesters sang “Saare jahan se accha” and raised slogans like “Mumbai Police zindabad”. Eventually, the police backed out of Morland Road. Community leader Mobin Qureshi said the protest had the support Mumbai Police and would continue. By 8pm, there were more than 200 at Mumbai Bagh. Later in the night, actor Sushant Singh and student leader Aishe Ghosh addressed the crowd.