BJP leader H Raja justifies police action on protesters resorting to violence

BJP National secretary Hariharan Raja Sharma also known as H Raja has justified the police action on protestors holding violent protests and damaging public property, he said, "guns will be used to reply to guns". His remark comes after the alleged police firing during protests in Mangaluru and is seen as a justification for the police firing.

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Raja has also spoken in support of veteran actor Rajinikanth who had said that violence cannot be a solution. Rajinikanth had neither spoken in favour nor against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC. However, his comments had received mixed reactions with a number of netizens criticizing his stand. To this, Raja said, “What wrong did friend Rajinikanth say? What was wrong in his statement? He only said violence is not good. Why are the people against him?” 

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Rajinikanth tweets

Rajinikanth had shared a tweet on Friday saying, "Violence cannot be a way out for any issue. Rather it should not become a solution. People must have a love for the country, think better for the country and have unity amongst themselves. The present situation of violence pains my heart."

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Reaction to Rajinikanth's tweet

Several people took offence to his tweet as they considered his comment an insult to the student community. The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. The act does not include granting citizenship to Muslims from the three countries as they are the majority there and the Act is about giving citizenship to religious minorities suffering persecution. 

However, there have been nationwide protests claiming the CAA to be anti-Muslim and students from Jamia Millia University, JNU and Aligarh Muslim University had held protests which turned violent wherein the protestors resorted to stone-pelting and damaging public property. The Delhi Police has also been slammed across the country for resorting to lathi charge on the students.

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(With inputs from ANI)