Amit Shah continued his venomous onslaught against the peaceful protestors of Shaheen Bagh, urging his supporters to vote for the far-right party in the upcoming elections in Delhi, so there is “never a Shaheen Bagh again”.
Addressing a gathering of BJP’s social media volunteers in the national capital on Saturday, 25 January, Shah said BJP workers to “Press the button of lotus so hard that the current makes the Shaheen Bagh protesters run away on the very evening of February 8.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah at 'Jeet Ki Goonj' program in Delhi: Kamal ka button (on EVM) itni zor se dabana ki uss button ke current se hi 8th Feb ki shaam ko hi Shaheen Bagh wale uth kar chale jaayen. #DelhiElections2020 https://t.co/Ck7CDFSINo
— ANI (@ANI) January 25, 2020
Directly aiming at the women at Shaheen Bagh, Amit Shah said, “We want a Delhi which is free of pollution, where everybody gets clean water to drink, 24-hour electricity, facilities for children’s education, no unauthorised colonies, an efficient transport system, world-class roads, where there are no traffic jams and there is never a Shaheen Bagh.”
Hitting back at to Shah’s outrageous remarks Shaheen Bagh remark, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia noted that the capital’s law and order is the responsibility of the Centre and Home Minister Amit Shah, instead of looking for CCTVs and Wifi, should address the demands of Shaheen Bagh protesters.
“Maintaining the law and order in Delhi is the responsibility of home minister Shah and the central government. If there is any shortcoming in the law and order, the home minister should answer. It is sad that he is busy searching CCTVs with binoculars or is searching Wifi in Delhi with a discharged phone. He is not able to understand that there is some issue in the law and order. This is his responsibility,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.
Criticising Amit Shah’s remarks, Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, “Home Minister seeks votes to get rid of Shaheen Bagh. Only those who despise Gandhiji would want to get rid of Shaheen Bagh. Shaheen Bagh represents the essence of Mahatma Gandhi,” he said in a series of tweets.
“Getting rid of Shaheen Bagh amounts to getting rid of Ahimsa and Satyagraha,” Chidambaram said.
Shah’s hate inciting comments was also slammed on social media.
It takes country's home minister to counter old ladies of #ShaheenBagh!!
Kudos ladies.. 👆🏼🇮🇳📖👌🏼
— Desi tintin (@The_Telegraph58) January 26, 2020
Amit Shah says in Delhi – “press the EVM button with such anger that Shaheen Bagh feels the current”.
Maanyavar – the battery in an EVM is merely 7.5 volts.
The current that Shaheen Bagh has given you & your govt. is far more powerful than that.
Tumse naa ho paayega.
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) January 27, 2020
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Shaheen Bagh is all over India now. Want to “rid” Delhi of Shaheen Bagh”? Withdraw CAA. Abandon NPR and NRC. The “chronology” is simple enough for Amit Shah to understand now. #CAA_NRCProtests pic.twitter.com/92DxSMmzIk
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) January 26, 2020
Over the past month, hundreds of women, including grandmothers and children — have occupied a stretch of road in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, undeterred by rain, cold and threats, protesting against the highly sectarian and divisive Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that gives fast track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but intentionally excludes Muslim migrants.
The rightwing BJP-led Centre government has said the new law will be followed by a National Register of Citizens (NRC). That means Muslims must prove they were original residents of India and not refugees from these three countries. Non-Muslims listed in the law, by contrast, have a clear path to citizenship.
Deemed discriminatory in nature, the act has propelled fears that the BJP seeks to undermine the constitution’s secular character and turn India into a majoritarian state.
Primarily led by women, the Shaheen Bagh sit-in has come to symbolise the ongoing nationwide struggle against the divisive act that shares worrying similarities with the rhetoric and policies of the Nazi German state between 1929-1940.
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Shaik Zakeer Hussain is the Founder and Editor of The Cognate.
