Braving freezing cold, hundreds of protesters spent hours squatting on a frosty road near Sunehri Masjid in Old Delhi on Thursday after being pushed back by police from the historic Red Fort.
The cold, the season's most severe, and police restrictions on assembly of a large number of people could not deter the protesters, who shouted slogans, sang and recited couplets on freedom, secularism, and unity.
Mohammad Kazim, an organiser, said protesters came in buses and by foot.
At Sunehri Masjid, a huge posse of police personnel prevented the protesters from moving forward. Those who came by bus were detained. The others decided to start the protest here around 11 am, Kazim said.
Tricolour and posters of all sizes and colours filled the Shantivana Road as people in the houses along the road watched from their windows.
While some posters opposed the amended Citizenship Act and the NRC in large bold letters in red and black, some took a dig at the government in the form of couplets.
One of the posters read: "Ek kursi jaroor jeet gaye. Tumne Hindustan haar diya (You may have won one more seat, but you have lost India)."
Another poster carried the words of Urdu poet Wasim Barelvi -- "Usoolon pe jahaan aanch aaye takrana zaroori hai. Jo zinda ho to phir zinda nazar aana zaroori hai."