MARGAO: The anti-CAA protest meeting organised by the Council for Social Justice and Peace, an arm of the Goa Church, and Concerned Citizens of Goa demanded that the state legislative assembly pass a resolution demanding the central government unconditionally and immediately revoke the

(CAA) and all activities related to National Population Register (

) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The gathering also pledged “to refuse to provide details for the NPR”.

Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao and Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro, were among those seated in the front rows but did not address the gathering.

Prominent among those who addressed the meeting included Damodar Mauzo, Oscar Rebello, Francisco Colaco and Prabhakar Timble.

Rebello referred to the Indian Constitution as every citizen’s holy book which enshrined values of justice, equality, fraternity and peace. “It is because the government has attempted to defile their holy book that people have taken to the streets,” he said.

Stating that the NRC was “more dangerous” than the CAA, Rebello said that NRC would provide a tool to the corrupt bureaucrats “to bribe you to include your name in the registry.”

Mauzo said that the CAA was an attempt to breach the Constitution and, in effect, destroy the social fabric of Goan society. “We are worried that this will end up in second partition of India,” he said.

Timble said that India will be the only country where citizenship is granted on the basis of religion if CAA is implemented.