Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act have now reached football stadiums in Kolkata. During an I-League derby match in Kolkata’s Salt Lake stadium on Sunday between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, East Bengal fans held a tifo that said, “Rokto diye kena mati kagoj diye noy”, which loosely translates to “This land was bough with blood, not documents”.
Television visuals showed at least two such banners being held up during the match that Mohun Bagan won.
According to PTI, another such banner showed Batul the Great, a popular superhero Bengali comic strip character created by Narayan Debnath to protest against NRC and CAA.
“Pala, pala, pala NRC asche” (go away the NRC is coming) to which the Bengali superhero comes to the rescue, showing his muscle power.
The report said another display read: “You Bangal, where are the NRC papers”, as Bantul responds with “go away”.
Traditionally, majority of the fan base of East Bengal comes from the immigrant population from Bangladesh who were forced to leave their home during the partition of 1947.
Mohun Bagan defeated East Bengal 2-1 in the much-anticipated derby, the penultimate clash between the two sides in the I-League era as the Mariners will be merged with Indian Super League franchise ATK from next season.
The next Kolkata derby of the I-League, the last one between the two sides, will played here on March 15.
Last week, during the first ODI between India and Australia at Wankhede Stadium, protesters had worn t-shirts with “No CAA”, “No NRC” and “No NPR” written on them.
(With PTI inputs)