Yogendra Yadav, Radhika Vemula vow to fight CAA, NPR, NRC

Politician-activist Yogendra Yadav and Radhika Vemula, mother of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula who committed suicide, on Friday joined hands and vowed to fight against the CAA, NRC and NPR.

At an event commemorating the fourth death anniversary of Vemula, a University of Hyderabad student, Yadav said the protests were being organised by "We the People", a common banner of organisations and people from across the country, against the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens and Nation Population Register.

"Today, the protests against CAA-NRC-NPR have grown beyond a protest. They have become a movement across the nation. It has become a movement for the Idea of India" where people of all religions will be equal citizens, he said. He alleged the CAA-NRC-NPR were challenging that very idea and trying to create "a Hindu Israel and a Hindu Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, Radhika Vemula said the citizenship laws should be opposed to save the nation.

She said her son, who ended his life four years ago, had predicted that citizens were going to be reduced to vote and a number. Vemula announced her along with the mother of Dr Payal Tadvi, who allegedly committed suicide in Mumbai in 2019, and the mother of Najeeb, who went missing from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2016, was planning a tour under the banner 'Mothers for the Nation' to defend the basic principles of the Constitution framed by B R Ambedkar.