 January 26th, India's Republic Day witnessed massive demonstrations across the country rejecting the Divisive Citizenship Amendment Act that is the CAA and National Register of Citizens that is the NRC. Republic Day honours the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect. CAA was recently passed by the far-right Narendra Modi-led government which is also planning to implement an all-India NRC. Critics point out that these regressive measures paved the way for a Hindu-majoritarian nation. In the South Indian state of Kerala, more than 7 million people from all walks of life participated in a 620-kilometre-long statewide human chain. The human chain was organised by the ruling Left Democratic Front led by the Communist Party of India masses. I am part of the human chain because I want to be part of a movement that has been going on in India for the last one month or so against the so-called reform bill of the citizenship in India. I think that Indian citizenship has been unique in the sense that it is one of the few countries which has actually upheld the principle of religious enmity, secularism, democracy, social justice, including general justice as well as non-discrimination between human beings to the full. And in this sense, this is one of the nations, particularly among the post-colonial nations, which has been extremely fruitful in actually developing the sense of enmity among the people as well as upheld the principles of humanity. And that I think is being violated by the present government, which thinks that everything can be decided on the basis of religion. And also, for the first time in India, we are going to have a situation where citizenship is not really being held by domesticity as well as location where you are actually living. And along with that, we actually have to have religion as one of the basis of citizenship, which means that we are going back to medieval times. That is the reason why I am here today. We are here to protest against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Bill and the upcoming National Register of Citizens and in general to uphold the constitutional values on this Republic Day. It is very unfortunate to celebrate our Republic Day like this. The basic structure of the Constitution itself is getting violated and as a youth of this nation, I felt I am obliged to protest against this. The very idea of our nation is defined by the Indian Constitution and its constitutional morality which holds our nation together and if it falls apart in their secular fabric as well as the plurality of our nation is under threat. That's why we have decided to join this protest against that. In the capital city of New Delhi, thousands gathered at Shaheen Bagh to participate in the Republic Day celebrations with the slogan, Reclaim the Republic. Shaheen Bagh is the site of a sit-in protest led by women that has been going on for the past 43 days. Left parties jointly took the oath to save the Constitution and formed a human chain at Agartala in Tripura, rejecting CAA and NRC. CPIM Politburo member Manik Sarkar led the demonstration. Demonstrations were also held across West Bengal by left parties. On the occasion of Republic Day, people across India took a pledge to protect India's Constitution and its secular character from assaults by the far-right wing.