Hindu, Muslim students tie rakhis at anti-CAA march

Kolkata : A large number of students belonging to both Hindu and Muslim communities took out a protest march against the new citizenship law on Republic Day on Sunday and tied the rakhi on one another in an attempt to strengthen bonding between the two communities.

The march started from Nakhoda Mosque in central Kolkata and concluded in north Kolkata's Tagore house at Jorasanko where first non-European Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was born.

"We, the people of India, have nothing to lose, but chains," said a prominent banner at the forefront of the march, where a large number of common people of all ages also joined in.

"Stand with JNU and AMU. Stand with nation," said another banner carried by the students.

They repeatedly raised slogans pledging "We won't allow the country to be divided," and assailed the Central government for trying to divide Hindus and Muslims. Many of the students, who came from several colleges and universities, carried rakhis, and tied them on members of the other community, in a show of Hindu-Muslim bonding.

A participant recalled that in 1905, when then Viceroy Lord Curzon tried to partition Bengal, Tagore had led a procession from Joransanko to Nakhoda mosque where he tried rakhis on members of the Muslim community.