Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy on Monday, 3 February, commented on the sit-in by Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, Roy saying it is "nothing but absolute nuisance", reports news channel NDTV.
“People are sitting at a public place for one and half months, causing great inconvenience to people to carry on their daily activities.”Tathagata Roy, Meghalaya Governor
"For the last 50 days they are carrying on some nautanki (drama). Despicable," he said at the Kolkata Book Fair, adding to the barrage of criticism and hate speech against the protesters.
“You ask the people who live around there, they are going crazy. The young children can’t go to school, sick people can’t go to hospitals”.Tathagata Roy, Meghalaya Governor
Protests at Shaheen Bagh have continued for nearly two months, with similar protests sparking across the country. The women at these protests have faced mounting criticism from senior politicians, online hate speech and recently, even a gun crime.
Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the protests in Shaheen Bagh and other areas are not a coincidence but an "experiment" and a political conspiracy to destroy the country's harmony.
“Be it Seelampur, Jamia (Nagar) or Shaheen Bagh, for the last several days, there have been protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Are these protests coincidental? No, this is not coincidental, it is an experiment,”Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
On Saturday, 1 February, a man identified as Kapil Gujjar fired two rounds in air at the Shaheen Bagh area following which he was taken into custody by police, eyewitnesses said. No one was injured in the incident.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a television interview, on Saturday, 1 February, said that the Government of India, under Prime Minister Modi, is willing to talk to the protesters in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. However, he said, the talks should be in a “structured form”.
“It’s a good thing if you’re protesting. You can protest for 10, 15, 20, 25 days. But what we hear people from your group saying is that until CAA is rolled back, there will be no dialogue. If you want the government to talk to you, then there must be a “structured request” from your side that everybody is ready to talk.”Ravi Shankar Prasad at a discussion on India TV
BJP MP and MoS Finance, Anurag Thakur, was banned from campaigning in Delhi for the state elections after he said at a rally that “traitors of the country” must be “shot down”.
Thakur’s comments received even more backlash after a gun-wielding teenager opened fire at student protestors outside Delhi’ Jamia Milia Islamia University on Thursday, 30 January.
(With inputs from new channel NDTV and PTI)
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