Issue and Opposition: PM Modi and his party (BJP) are accused of being right-wing Hindu conservatives nurturing anti-Muslim sentiments and formulating anti-Muslim policies and laws. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 (CAA) is an example of that. Passed on 11 December 2019, the CAA introduced certain amendments to its 1955 version. These amendments eased out a pathway to Indian citizenship for the Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jain, Buddhists, and Parsis who faced religious persecution in Muslim-majority countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan because of their minority status and migrated to India before the end of 2014. Following the rationale that Muslims are the majority in Islamic countries and hence exempt from religious persecution, the CAA of 2019 does not extend similar provisions for Muslims. This was criticized by Indian Muslims, left-wing and opposition parties, and student groups as discriminatory, resulting in anti-Modi and BJP protests in different parts of the country.
Dilemma Action: To protest against the passage of CAA, students of India’s top business school- the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore- organized a unique and hilarious dilemma action. In India, gatherings are prohibited under Section 144 (CRPC). Following large-scale protests all over the country after the CAA passed on December 19, the government of India banned mass gatherings using Section 144. In addition, the IIM administration announced that students participating in protest meetings or actions on campus would be punished. The Bengaluru police announced that Section 144 was implemented throughout the city, banning mass gatherings until midnight on Saturday (December 20) in response to the city shutdown calls by several political and activist groups. The protesters were told that if they stepped outside, they would be arrested. In defiance, the IIM students gathered their shoes and put the piles of shoes outside the gates to symbolize “stepping out.” The IIM administration could not arrest the protesters even though hundreds of shoes jammed the business school entrances.
Outcome: No changes were made to the CAA even after the protests. However, the IIM protest got a lot of press and social media attention. Several groups organized protests against the central government on the CAA issue. The IIM Bangalore protest was one of those protest campaigns.