Legislator from Gujarat Jignesh Mewani, actor Naseeruddin Shah, and transgender rights activist Akkai Padmashali addressed the women-led protest in Bilal Mosque on Tannery Road in Bengaluru against the CAA and NRC on Friday.
Actor Naseeruddin Shah also turned up at the protest around 9 pm. Addressing the protesters he said that the women-led protests have given him the courage to speak up.
"Everywhere in the country, women are protesting. These brave women are being asked by some elements: How can they come out on the streets? Who has given them permission and whether men have sent them to protest? To them, I have only one thing to say: These brave women are awakened now and don’t need anyone’s permission to protest," he said.
The protest in Bilal Bagh is ongoing for a week and on Friday, independent MLA from Gujarat Jignesh Mewani addressed the people gathered at the protest site. "Mothers, the light and brightness of your faces....if Modi sees you all just once, he will resign. Although this protest belongs to all of us, it especially belongs to all you revolutionary sisters and mothers. That's why I haven't come here today to give a long lecture, I have come to just witness your illumined faces," he said.
He said that women in other parts of the country were also putting up a resistance. "Today I have come to you with the message from Sabzi Bagh of Patna and Shaheen Bagh of Delhi. And that message is this. In Patna and Delhi the sisters and mothers are putting up a strong resistance, if you continue a similar resistance here we shall definitely be victorious," he said..
On Tannery Road where Bilal Bagh has been set up, women have blocked off the road by setting up a tent in which slogans are shouted and songs are sung.
Also joining in with the protest was Akkai Padmashali, an award-winning trans rights activist. "Our country is going through an undexlared emergency. The people who are here are fighting against the government, and we are seeing how the government will respond," she said.
The protest on Tannery Road was set up along the lines of the indefinite protest at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi against CAA and NRC.