By Victor Edwin

New Delhi, Feb 4, 2020: A group of Catholic religious has expressed solidarity with the women protesters of Shaheen Bagh in the national capital.

Around 25 Catholic priests and nuns from Delhi led by Presentation Sister Anastasia Gill on February 2 spent a day with the women who are protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

“The Christian community rejects CAA as this piece of legislation that is against the spirit of the Constitution of India,” said Sister Gill while addressing thousands of women gathered at the south Delhi suburb for more than 50 days.

The nun, who is the Christian member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, said as “citizens of this great nation, Christians are in solidarity with the protesters as they defend the idea of India cherished by the father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhiji and Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

The Catholic religious sang with the protesters ‘Abide with me,” a favorite hymn of Mahatma Gandhi, and the popular hymn “Hum honge kaam yaab” (we will succeed), an anthem of many civil rights movements.

Shaheen Bagh protesters
Following the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act in both the houses of parliament the women spontaneously and peacefully began to demonstrate at Shaheen Bagh from December 15. The women intensified their protest with the police brutality against the students of Jamia Millia Islamia.

Sister Gill later told Matters India that Shaheen Bagh has become a remarkable symbol of the widespread, spontaneous and a profound mass upsurge of people across India against what they say are anti-people laws.

This sit-in protest has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the country who came to express their solidarity. Earlier visitors included Father Susai Sebastian, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Delhi.