From Netflix to Hitler, protesters are tapping pop culture and history as they vent their anger against the new citizenship law -- and with deft use of India's beloved acronyms.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) eases
Critics fear it is the precursor to a National Register of Citizens (NRC) that many among India's often undocumented 200 million Muslims is aimed primarily of making them stateless.
Modi government denies this and says the law is a humanitarian move, but it has sparked two weeks of protests that at times have been violent. At least 27 people have been killed.
"NRC is Coming" reads one placard, co-opting the "Winter is Coming" slogan of the smash-hit fantasy series "Game of Thrones", with Modi's black and white mugshot in the background.
Others inspired by the same fantasy series include "Winter is coming for Modi and Shah", referring to Home Minister Amit Shah, and "Modi - you are making Cersei look good", a nod to a "Game of Thrones" villain.
"Netflix and raise hell", says another, in a spin on the expression "Netflix and chill".
"Stop trying to make NRC happen!" meanwhile rips off a popular line in
Anjali Singh, clutching an "Error 404, Hindu
"So our messaging has also got more explicit and direct," Singh told AFP.
Slogans like "Long Live the Revolution", a popular chant of India's independence struggle against
Caricatures of Modi and Shah wearing
"Everything that happens offline ends up online and we have to have a global appeal in our messaging," Kiran Malhotra, a student protester in New Delhi, explained to AFP.
"Someone sitting in the US or Europe will not understand the change in India's citizenship
Many protesters are also rehashing Indian TV jingles from the 1980s to give a nostalgic touch to the protests, while others are using tambourine
Other
"The messaging has to be more explicit and direct now," Ira Sen, a protester told AFP.
Her poster features independence icon Mahatma Gandhi
Many people are demonstrating for the first time, drawing inspiration from protests in Hong Kong, Chile, the Arab Spring and against US President Donald Trump's travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries.
"People power can bring change. Democracy and constitution will win, despots will be thrown out," Meenakshi Roy, an interior designer told AFP, holding a placard "Caesar will go... Rome stays".
Other placards are topical ("PM 2.0 is worse than PM2.5", a reference to a measure of pollution in India's smog-choked cities), witty ("I have seen smarter cabinets at IKEA"), or just downright provocative ("Sex" in bright red ink followed by "#noCAA #noNRC").
"There is more youthful but aggressive language in slogans and placards. Some of the placards are downright offensive, some mocking and many
"This protest has everything -- graphics, words, music, poetry and rage."
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