BJP leader hits out at Maha govt for issuing notice to school organising CAA event

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya on Monday criticised the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government for allegedly issuing a notice to a school in Mumbai for organising an awareness campaign on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

He said CAA has been passed by Parliament and has received the President's assent, and condemned the act my Maha-Vikas-Aghadi government. 

The school organised the programme last week on CAA, which has triggered widespread protests across India.

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Thousands join Anti-CAA Protest

Thousands of citizens on Sunday congregated in Mumbai's suburban Jogeshwari to oppose the new citizenship law, the proposed NRC and NPR. They also condemned last Sunday's violence on the JNU campus in Delhi, where masked men ran riot and attacked students. Leftist organisations had claimed RSS-affiliated ABVP's role in the attack, a charge denied by the students' body.

Former Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) general secretary Fahad Ahmed told PTI that they assembled under the aegis of 'Hum Bharat Ke Log' in Millat Nagar area. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi should call 56 students from across the country to debate on the CAA, NRC and NPR," Ahmed said in an apparent jibe at Modi's "56-inch chest" remark, which the latter had made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

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"Why the PM is not talking to us? Why is he not communicating? Even the Britishers used to talk to Indians whom they ruled, but our PM is not talking to poor people," he alleged.

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh also spoke on the occasion. "We are people of this country and such acts (CAA) are tarnishing the image of our country," he said. At the gathering, people waved banners with slogans like "I Am From Gujarat, My Documents Burned in 2002", "No CAA, Boycott NRC, Stop Dividing India, Don't Divide us", "Save Constitution", written on them.

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(With inputs from ANI)