Owaisi declares 'Will protest again' as RSS chief Bhagwat claims attempt to mislead on CAA

In a sharp and fierce reaction to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwant's remark on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that the Muslims in India are not "kids" who can be misled. In a series of tweets, Owaisi declared that he and his supporters will protest "again and again" if any law would tell Muslims to prove their "Indianness". The Hyderabad MP also dared the RSS chief to remove all references to religion in the CAA if it is not meant to target Muslims, he said. 

Moreover, in view of recent Bihar elections, Owaisi has targeted Lalu Yadav-led RJD and other parties including Congress, and said that their silence on the CAA issue has not been forgotten. Referring to Union Minister Giriraj Singh's statement in Purnia in February this year - that Seemanchal (areas in Bihar's Purnia, Kishanganj, Araria) has maximum "ghuspethiyan" (intruders) - Owaisi said that RJD and Congress didn't "open their mouths" then.

On Sunday, RSS chief Bhagwat stirred the pot again by commenting on CAA during his customary Vijaya Dashami address. The RSS chief recalled the massive protests and violence that took place in opposition to CAA and stressed that those were 'organised violence'. He reiterated that CAA does not oppose any particular religious community and Muslims have been "misled" by "propagating a false notion".

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Mohan Bhagwat on CAA

Warning that those against the CAA are trying to "reignite the conflict" that was stopped due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Bhagwat reminded that the CAB was lawfully passed in the Parliament per the due constitutional process and it is to save those who face discrimination and persecution in neighbouring countries. In the past, a similar explanation of the contentious Citizenship Act has been made by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister as well. 

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RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said, "The CAA was lawfully passed in the Parliament per the due constitutional process. The law envisaged expediting the process of granting citizenship to our brother and sisters who face discrimination and persecution in some of the neighbouring countries and are displaced to seek refuge in our country. These countries have a history of religious persecution against minorities. CAA does not oppose any particular religious community. But those who wanted to oppose this new law misled our Muslim brothers by propagating a false notion that it was aimed at restricting the Muslim population. Using CAA, opportunists unleashed organised violence in the name of protests. Even before something could be thought out, Corona crept in. In the background, the efforts by rioters and opportunists to reignite the conflict still continue."

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What is the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)?

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014. The Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill on December 11, 2019, and President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on December 12.

After the bill was passed by the Parliament, the widespread protest began opposing the Act. The protest took a violent turn when clashes erupted between Delhi Police and Jamia Millia Islamia students. While students allege that Police used brutal force against them and Police allege that students stone-pelted. Thereafter, nationwide protests began against the implementation of CAA and against Police brutality with Delhi's Shaheen Bagh being the most prominent place. On February 24, clashes also broke out between CAA supporters and opposers and soon turned into a riot, killing 53 people and injuring over 200, as per official records.

Demanding to scrap the contentious law, Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have passed a resolution against CAA. Several other states like Maharashtra have openly opposed CAA-NRC-NPR and Bihar has passed a resolution in favour of the old format of NPR.

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