Japanese join Indians to support CAA, NRC, NPR in Tokyo
TOKYO: The Indian Embassy in Tokyo on Friday witnessed a peaceful demonstration in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) by the Indian citizens staying and working in Japan.
Flanked by some of their Japanese friends, these Indians met Sanjay Kumar Verma, Indian Ambassador in Tokyo, and handed him over the letter of support.
They also made a botched attempt to persuade another group of Indian students who had gathered outside the embassy at the same time to lodge their protest against CAA, NRC, and NPR to talk to Indian embassy officials and get their doubts clarified.
While opposing the Indian government’s decision these students staged a peaceful protest and demanded revocation of CAA and stopping the process of introducing NRC in India. They also condemned the police firing on students and demanded the release of the arrested ones.
On the other side, another group of Indians including Vikash Ranjan, an employee of an IT firm in Tokyo along with their Japanese friends gathered outside the Indian embassy on Friday after getting to know of a protest call given by some of the Indians.
“Even the Japanese friends showed their support in principle to the fact such deprived minorities shall get the justice who always wanted to maintain their Indian identity. We also requested the Indian Ambassador to meet those protesting outside the embassy. I went to negotiate with protestors to come and meet embassy officials but they turned our request down,” said Vikash Ranjan.
Later this group stated in a release, “With an ongoing discussion over CAA in India, we the concerned Indians gathered in Tokyo to meet and educate the people about CAA as well current position on NRC as well as NPR. Citizenship Act or any Constitutional article indeed requires some study to clearly understand its objectives and due procedure.”
Unfortunately, such complications are being misused by some anti-social elements to spread rumors and run negative propaganda it said adding that this sometimes led to the violent protests as we have seen last week in some parts of India.
“Keeping this in mind, some concerned Indians did a thorough study in recently enacted CAA, its historical background as well did some research on authenticate details of NRC and NPR. It is very important and also a duty of responsible Indian citizens to realize a basic fact that CAA is not for Indian citizens and neither it revokes anyone’s citizenship. It is a democratically passed law and top Indian lawyer like Harish Salve has also explained the technicalities which validate CAA as per Constitutional procedure,” stated the release.
When meeting the Indian citizens, Sanjay Kumar Verma, Indian Ambassador in Tokyo welcomed them to the embassy by telling them that the Indian embassy was their home away from home.
“If you have any concerns… please come and talk to us. We will try our best to clarify the things,” the Indian ambassador reportedly told the group of Indians.
