New Delhi, Jan 27 In broad hints that the law of the land could soon catch up with the controversial activist Sharjeel Imam vis-a-vis Shaheen Bagh protest, police in two more northeastern and BJP-ruled states Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have registered FIRs against him for waging war against the nation.
"The kind of provocation inciting secession of Assam and other NE states from rest of India, creating communal disharmony, hampering sovereignty & territorial integrity of India will not be tolerated," Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu tweeted.
In Manipur, BJP sources said the state police have filed an FIR in connection with the 'objectionable video' under relevant sections 121/121-A/124-A/ 120-B /153 of IPC.
The Arunachal Pradesh crime branch filed a similar case against Imam and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by senior police official Navdeep S Brar is already probing the matter, sources said.
The politics on matters related to Shaheen Bagh has blown up in view of the February 8 Delhi polls.
Home Minister Amit Shah during election campaign has said: “ Your vote to BJP on February 8 will not only result in victory for the BJP candidate, but it will also secure the country and prevent incidents like Shaheen Bagh".
"Shaheen Bagh is emerging as a textbook case of a few hundred people seeking to suppress the peaceful majority," BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here on Monday.
Countering the BJP, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the saffron party of indulging in 'gandi rajniti (dirty politics)'. He suggested that BJP leaders should visit Shaheen Bagh, talk to the protestors and ensure opening of the route.
The 42-day-long Shaheen Bagh protest was largely seen as anti-CAA agitation, but the BJP and some Sangh elements have suggested there has been motivated purpose behind the sit-in stir.
An overwhelming number of women - mostly from a minority community - have been staging sit in dharna.
Delhi Police have booked Sharjeel Imam, said to be one of the organisers of the anti-citizenship act protest in the Shaheen Bagh.
Meanwhile, reports from Bihar said, Jehanabad cops and few officials from central agencies raided the ancestral home of Sharjeel Imam and also quizzed his relatives.
Two of his relatives were reportedly detained but later let off.
A graduate in computer science Sharjeel Imam had shifted to Delhi for pursuing research at the JNU.
He has been booked by Aligarh police in Uttar Pradesh for a January 16 'inflammatory' speech.
"If five lakh people are organised, we can cut off the northeast and India permanently," he is heard stating in a video that has gone viral.
"Cutting off Assam is our responsibility. We know the condition of Muslims in Assam....," he reportedly said.
Assam police have lodged a case against him under the the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act.
Imam's relatives in Bihar reportedly have stated that he was 'disturbed' by the CAA and thus had participated in the protest.
Launching a broadside on both Congress and AAP for 'rendering' support to such protest, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted on Monday: "Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal are both silent on this issue. But I want to say this to Congress clearly, that there will be no partition of India again".
"No one is hearing the voice of the silent whose children are unable to go to schools and shops are closed and people are unable to go to offices," Mr Prasad said in reference to inconvenience caused to the people in Sarita Vihar and adjoining areas close to Shaheen Bagh.
Delhi-Noida commuters have also started raising objections to the manner of the stir as increased traffic pressure on the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) route. Shaheen Bagh in South Delhi region has good connectivity to nearby commercial and official areas such as Noida, Nehru Place and Sarita Vihar.
".......To finish off India's independence, some kind of conspiracy is there in Shaheen Bagh. We have evidence to that effect," BJP spokesman Sambit Patra told reporters on Saturday.
On Friday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has said that the protest in Shaheen Bagh must be stopped forthwith.
Post-Sharjeel arrest, Shaheen Bagh stir organisers invite people "in large numbers"
New Delhi, Jan 28 Shortly after the arrest of alleged mastermind of Shaheen Bagh protest - Sharjeel Imam - a Twitter handle run by the organisers on Tuesday urged citizens from across Delhi to reach Shaheen Bagh "in large numbers".
"Please reach Shaheen Bagh and sites across Delhi in large numbers," said a Tweet from 'Shaheen Bagh Official'.
The same twitter handle on January 25 had sought to downplay the row over video that showed Sharjeel making inflammatory remarks and giving a call for 'cutting off' Assam from the rest of India.
"The protest at Shaheen Bagh is to protect the constitutional morality of this nation. No one individual's videos, statements or articles can represent the movement," it had said on January 25.
There was also a row on Tuesday evening around 1800 hours vis-a-vis a video surfaced showing a gun-wielding individual - who was overpowered.
"An official and urgent appeal from Shaheen Bagh: armed anti-social elements have entered the protest area. We fear that more right-wing groups could enter and launch an attack. We appeal to all to join the protest, strengthen our numbers and prevent any violence," said a missive from 'Shaheen Bagh Official' twitter handle.
Addressing a BJP workers meeting at Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday (post Sharjeel's arrest) that Sharjeel Imam's conduct and utterances were more dangerous than the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar, who faces a sedition charge related to sloganeering in JNU in 2016.
"Now Sharjeel has been arrested in Delhi and he will face the law and stay behind bars," the Home Minister said.
The BJP also made alleged 'laxity' shown by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his administration on initiating legal actions against former JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid for sedition charges against them.
Earlier in the day, alleged mastermind of Shaheen Bagh protest Sharjeel was arrested in Bihar.
The Shaheen Bagh stir mostly participated by women of a minority community was primarily against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Delhi-Noida commuters have meanwhile started raising objections to the manner of the stir as there is increased traffic pressure on the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) route.
Shaheen Bagh in South Delhi region has good connectivity to nearby commercial and official areas such as Noida, Nehru Place and Sarita Vihar.
The influential Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) last Friday said that the protest in Shaheen Bagh must be stopped forthwith.
Speaker Birla registers protest with Prez of European Parl on anti-CAA resolution
New Delhi, Jan 27 In a major move vis-a-vis the role of elected Parliament in assertive diplomacy, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday wrote a letter to the President of European Parliament, David Maria Sassoli, registering protest over a joint motion for resolution that has been introduced on CAA.
"....as members of the Inter Parliamentary Union all members should respect the sovereign processes of fellow parliaments, Mr Birla stated in his letter," a source told UNI.
Mr Birla asserted that it was "inappropriate for any legislature to pass judgement on another".
He further informed that Resolution to frame new Citizenship law was passed only after due deliberation by both Houses of Indian Parliament.
Earlier in the day, Union Law Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said it is "high time" the European Union lawmakers also needed to be 'objective' vis-a-vis targeting of Hindu and Sikh girls in Pakistan.
"Have my esteemed friends of European Parliament sought to raise a voice over the victimisation of Hindu and Sikh girls in Pakistan? It is high time they also need to be objective," Mr Prasad told reporters here.
Answering questions at a media briefing, Mr Prasad, however, said the BJP-led government believes in engagement and thus the Ministry of External Affairs will take up the matter in that spirit.
"It is an internal matter, we believe in engagement. Left parties had also sought this resolution. Our MEA will engage with them and explain the position," Mr Prasad said.
Row over money play & anti-CAA stir grows bigger: Kapil Sibal denies charge
New Delhi, Jan 27 A major row has been triggered over media stories suggesting that the controversial organisation PFI has funded the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act agitations.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said: "In all about Rs 120 crore has been deposited in 73 banks. This money was distributed across the country when anti-CAA protests were on".
"This makes it clear that a manufactured violence was created by distributing money by the PFI," he said.
BJP spokesman also said at least 25 PFI activists were arrested in Uttar Pradesh for anti-CAA related violence.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Congress leader Kapil Sibal said: "I was paid for professional services rendered and for nothing else. Any insinuations made to besmirch my good name and defame me will be taken seriously".
Mr Sibal also said that he was paid Rs 77 lakh in respect to a litigation of 2017 titled "Safin Jahan (petitioner) versus Asokan KM and others as Respondents", which related to Hadiya's marriage to Safin Jahan.
However, in a tweet, BJP spokesman Mr Sambit Patra further said: "Kapil Sibal says that money received from PFI was for the Hadiya case. But wasn’t the Hadiya case - a case between a husband and wife and how did PFI get involved?".
Delhi BJP MPs visit AAP Govt-run schools, complain about lack of basic amenities
New Delhi, Jan 27 Delhi government schools under Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP regime have 'broken benches, disgusting toilets' and with poor drinking water facilities, the BJP alleged here on Monday.
"World class school of Delhi government giving education to students for only two hours a day ... what a shame, Aam Aadmi Party spent crores on their advertisement and look at the school infrastructure..," Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari tweeted showing the poor conditions of the city government schools in the capital.
"The schools have broken benches, the toilets were disgusting, in some schools, the students were studying under trees.....and the filth at the drinking water facilities. The visits (by Delhi BJP MPs) proved that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has only lied to people through advertisements," a party statement said here.
East Delhi BJP MP Gautam Gambhir, a former cricket star, released a 50-second video of a school showing broken toilets and poor infrastructures.
In order to corner the AAP dispensation over education system in Delhi, all seven BJP MPs from the national capital visited government schools in the city on Monday.
According to party sources, Chandni Chowk MP Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is Union minister, visited a school in the Prem Nagar area while North East Delhi MP and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari visited a government school in Khajoori Khas.
Other Delhi BJP MPs -- Meenakshi Lekhi, Gautam Gambhir, Parvesh Singh Verma, Ramesh Bidhuri and Hans Raj Hans -- also visited schools in their constituencies.
Chief Minister Mr Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had in the past challenged BJP leaders to 'compare' the condition of the schools in the states run by BJP those in the national capital.
Parvesh Singh Verma, MP from West Delhi, visited a government school in Matiala and showcased a PWD letter, written to the government a few months ago, which said that the school building was in bad and dangerous condition.
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment