Women take to streets across the country shouting “No more Modi!”

“Let us speak up, stand together and tear down the wall of lies!”

The chant rented the air on the streets of the national capital and all major towns as thousands of women took out protest march against the Modi government which, they said, has led a war against its own citizens.

The war against the citizens has been in the form of mob lynching, hate speeches by leaders of the ruling party, invoking draconian laws against peaceful protesters and arresting people calling them ‘seditious’, ‘anti-national’ and ‘urban naxal’.

“For the last five years, women of India have watched with growing anger the present government and its followers spread misogyny, hate and lies across this land,” said women rights activists who organized the #WomenMarch4Change campaign across the country.

The #WomenMarch4Change is an inclusive platform for diverse communities of women and transgender people – farmers, students, activists, professionals, artists, workers, persons with disabilities, academics, journalists, lawyers, sex workers and forest dwellers – to dismantle the present regime of oppression, towards a just and peaceful future.

The march for change was part of the campaign to reclaim and vote for the constitutional rights of citizens of a democratic republic.

The marchers carried placards carrying slogans against the Modi government and its Sangh parivar followers for spreading anti-women messages and ideas in the society. “The selective silence of Prime Minister encourages the mob on the street and signals impunity. Justice today is less within reach than it was five years ago, especially for the most vulnerable – the Muslim, Dalit and Adivasi citizens,” pointed out the leaflet distributed by the marchers along the route from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

This government, and its supporters, the leaflet alleged, were hell-bent on criminalizing entire groups of people and communities. “The bogey of ‘Love Jihad’, Romeo Squads, Khap panchayat diktats and vicious trolling of women who dare to speak their mind are all direct attacks on women’s right to choose,” it said.