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In the run-up to Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP on Monday branded the ongoing anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in Shaheen Bagh as a den of “secessionist and anti-India forces” and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress of supporting them.
Pitted against a development-oriented election pitch by the ruling AAP, the BJP in Delhi is leaning heavily on Hindutva-centric campaign, especially banking on communal mobilisation in the wake of protests against CAA in Shaheen Bagh, to improve its dismal tally of just three seats it won in the 70-member Assembly. A distinct feature of the protests in Shaheen Bagh is that the largely women-led protesters have used symbols such as the National Flag and the Constitution to assert their nationalist identity and the rights they have as citizens.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at the nationalist character of the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh, asserting that national symbols — the tricolour and the Constitution — are being used as a cover for anti-India forces and the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal supports them.
“Shaheen Bagh is no longer a locality in Delhi. It is not a piece of geography but an idea which provides the cover of tricolour to the tukde-tukde gang (secessionist forces),” said Prasad. “It is offering platform to ‘tukde tukde gang’ elements under the garb of opposition to CAA. This protest is not just a protest against CAA it is a protest against Modi,” Prasad said in a press conference.
He said Shaheen Bagh, where hundreds of women and children have been protesting against CAA for almost two months now, is a “a textbook case of a few hundred people trying to suppress the silent majority”. “Lakhs of people are distressed because they can not go to office, shops are shut and their children are not able to go to school due to road block by Shaheen Bagh protesters,” he said.
Sedition case
Simultaneously, BJP president JP Nadda raised the issue of AAP government not giving sanction to the Delhi police to prosecute former JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case.
“Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and other anti-India forces raised seditious slogans like Bharat tere tukde honge in JNU. They were threatening to violate India’s sovereignty. Law enforcement agencies moved in, investigated the matter and in Jan 2019 were ready to file chargesheet,” Nadda tweeted.
“They (police) sought Kejriwal’s permission to prosecute this ‘tukde tukde’ gang but one year later, till yesterday, no permission was granted. Kejriwal must tell Delhi why is he supporting those who want to break India? Is it because acting against these anti-nationals will hurt his vote bank,” he tweeted.
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