Issue and Opposition: PM Modi and his party (BJP) are accused of being right-wing Hindu conservatives nurturing anti-Muslim sentiments and formulating anti-Muslim policies and laws. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 (CAA) is an example of that. Passed on 11 December 2019, the CAA introduced certain amendments in its 1955 version. These amendments eased out a pathway to Indian citizenship for the Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jain, Buddhists, and Parsis who faced religious persecution in Muslim-majority countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan because of their minority status and migrated to India before the end of 2014. Following the rationale that Muslims are the majority in Islamic countries and hence exempt from religious persecution, the CAA of 2019 does not extend similar provisions for Muslims. This was criticized by Indian Muslims, left-wing and opposition parties, and student groups as discriminatory, resulting in anti-Modi and BJP protests in different parts of the country. Students of India’s Islamic universities- Jamia Milia Islamia University (JMU) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)- also participated in a dilemma action in New Delhi to protest against Modi’s right-wing policy, especially CAA.
Dilemma Action: The student assembly and protests against Modi’s Citizenship Amendment Act on the first day were met with police brutality. On the next day, the protesting students again gathered in high numbers with anti-CAA placards and slogans. As the police confronted the protesters to stop their demonstrations, the girl students took out roses and offered them to the police. This gesture surprised the law enforcement officers and some of them reportedly accepted the roses. Along with this, the students used slogans exhibiting their earnestness to stay on the topic of CAA and protest against its passing, and not engage in meaningless violence. One slogan that became popular was (translated from Hindi): “We are the youth who just wanna talk, and not punch or kick/ Delhi police talk to us, come together and walk with us.” The action of offering flowers was a replication of a similar dilemma action in 1967 in which the protesters of the Vietnam War handed flowers to the armed military police personnel.
Outcome: Modi’s government did not withdraw the bill and the bill was passed into law. However, like other anti-CAA protests, this dilemma action was also covered widely by national and international media. The pictures of girls offering rose to police personnel became viral o social media. Hence, although no policy change or concessions resulted from this dilemma action, it surely made more people aware of some of the questionable policies and regulations under the BJP governance.