Lucknow: Women who led the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Lucknow in 2020 alleged that Uttar Pradesh Police put them under house arrest on March 15, Friday. According to these protesters, the administration has been exerting pressure on them not to raise their voices against the new citizenship law.
Two daughters of the well-known Urdu poet Munawwar Rana also alleged that they had been under house arrest from the morning to the evening of Friday.
Although these women protesters residing in different localities of the state capital say that they adhere to their stand to oppose the CAA, which according to them is discriminating and against the constitution of India. Besides this, a heavy police force was deployed around the iconic Ghanta Ghar, Hussainabad, which was the epicentre of nearly two months-long anti-CAA protests in Lucknow in 2020.
Some alleged that police knocked on their doors on Thursday evening, not allowing them to move anywhere from their houses. A woman protestor says that police came to her house for the first time on the evening of March 11, soon after the notification of CAA by the Union government.
Eram Fatima, who was one of the architects of the 2020 protest, told The Wire that police visited her flat in Napier Road Colony every day since the notification of the CAA was announced. “Police have been deployed outside my apartment, and policemen are interrogating every guest visiting the apartment. This is humiliating for me and irritating for my neighbours too,” says Eram.
According to her, the police also sent notices to some other women protestors and summoned them to police stations. However, she did not disclose their names. A staunch opponent of the CAA Eram believes the Narendra Modi government imposed a new citizenship law to hide its failure on every front including unemployment, inflation, the agrarian crisis, etc.
Police visited the house of Uzma Parveen, well-known as Lucknow ki Jhansi ki Rani, on Friday morning around 10 am. Uzma says police allegedly put her under house arrest and crippled her movement until the evening. According to Uzma, her phone was switched off, so the police used her mother’s (60), who is sick these days, contact number to communicate with her.
She sees this as intimidation for those who protested against the arrogance of the government in the past and launched anti-CAA protests. “It is utterly shameful that the police are humiliating us during the holy month of Ramzaan while we are keeping fast and devoting most of our time to prayers, etc.,” she added.
The daughters of the late Urdu poet Munawwar Rana also claim that the police put them under house arrest. Sumaiya Rana, who is also a spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party, strongly opposed her house last night and argued with the police, which disallowed her to move anywhere in the city for nearly 24 hours. Munawwar’s daughters were present at Ghanta Ghar from the onset of the anti-CAA protest, which began after being inspired by the Shaheen Bagh protest.
This was not the first time the police came to Sumaiya’s flat, Silver Apartment, in the Qaiserbag locality. Police knocked at her door several times earlier since the COVID-19 lockdown was lifted. Police also severed her notices many times and summoned her to the local police station in the past. “The government put us under arrest to clamp down on democratic voices.” “Earlier, police used to sit in parking at my apartment, but this time cops entered my flat, sat inside my home and did not allow me to go meet my widow’s mother, who is residing in the other locality,” Sumaiya says.
While criticising the CAA, she said this law was neither acceptable earlier nor today, and democratic protests against it would be continued until the government would not roll back it. “Any law based on religion is not acceptable; we are not fearful of the government’s abuse of power; we would raise our voice against the new citizenship law which discriminates people based on their religious identity, says an SP spokesperson.
“Police in six-seven vehicles came to my home early in the morning and sat in my drawing room for the whole day, not permitting me to go out,” says Uroosa Rana. She is also the daughter of Munawwar Rana. Urosa is the vice president of the UP Mahila Congress (Central Zone).
Annoyed by her alleged house arrest, Uroosa says UP police were behaving with protestors as criminals. “Was the right to protest abolished by the government?” she questioned. If not, why is the government ruining our lives by sending police every day to our houses?
According to Uroosa, such actions show that the Modi government has been fearful and perturbed since the notification of discriminatory laws. “We are facing such humiliation for raising voices against the dictatorial attitudes of the Modi government and because of our Muslim identity,” she added.
The UP police confirmed that the cops went to the places of some protestors but denied the house arrest of any of them. While talking with The Wire, Deputy Commissioner of the Police (Central) Raveena Tyagi said police were deployed outside some protestors’ houses to keep a vigil on them to maintain peace and tranquillity in the state.
However, the DCP also added that no one was under house arrest; it was only a primitive step to avoid any untoward incident. Today, on the first Friday of the Islamic month Ramzaan, heavy police were deployed outside the mosques as police were anticipating the outbreak of protests against the CAA.
In Lucknow, police flags marched in Muslim localities, especially around mosques. Massive protests broke out in UP on December 19, 2019, when some opposition parties and civil society gave a call to protest against the CAA. More than 20 protesters died in a state-wide protest allegedly caused by police bullets, which the police never accepted.
Subsequently, women also protested against it at Ghanta Ghar for nearly two months between January 2020 and March 2020. The protest was withdrawn due to the nationwide lockdown due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Later on, police pitched camps on Ghanta Ghar premises, and no one was allowed to protest there. Today, police turned Ghanta Ghar into a fortress, and an additional police force was deployed at the protest site.
