Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s comment likening the police crackdown on Sunday’s protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre was an “insult to the martyrs”, BJP general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao told The Hindu on Tuesday.
Mr. Thackeray had said, “There is a deliberate attempt to create an atmosphere of unrest in society. The way police opened fire on students by forcefully entering the compound, it appeared like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.” The youth “are like a bomb which should not be triggered,” he added.
Pune’s Fergusson College students stage protest against Citizenship Act and NRC
Mr. Rao said the BJP did not anticipate protests against the CAA to last beyond a few days, as the Act “did not affect the existing citizenship of Indians.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had repeatedly said the Act had no implications for the existing Indian citizens, and as such the protests would die down once that message percolated.
Sources in the BJP said the party was moving ahead with its outreach programme on the CAA in order to put out facts on the Act.
A senior general secretary of the party said, “We have already concluded four regional workshops with resource persons from the party, including one in Guwahati. We will go to every district of the country and hold programmes to educate people about the nitty-gritty of the Act, especially intellectuals and students.”
