BHOPAL: Harping on the saffron party’s prime poll planks of Hindutva and Nationalism ahead of Delhi Assembly elections, Union Home Minister and BJP national president Amit Shah reiterated on Sunday to build grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya within four months and made it clear those raising anti-national slogans will be placed behind bars.
Addressing a public rally as part of the BJP’s public outreach program on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at the Garrison Ground in Jabalpur town of Madhya Pradesh, Shah reiterated that a grand temple will be built in Ayodhya in four months.
“While you all want a grand Ram Temple to be built at Ram Janmbhoomi (birthplace of Lord Ram) in Ayodhya, the Congress’s advocate-turned-politician Kapil Sibal said Ram Temple shouldn’t be built. Listen clearly Sibal Bhai, put as much strength and power as you can to stop the construction of the temple, but the grand sky-high Ram Temple will be built within four months in Ayodhya,” said Shah.
The rally in support of CAA at Jabalpur assumed significance as the town was the epicenter of the recent anti-CAA/NRC violence in Madhya Pradesh. Curfew was clamped in four police station areas of the town following large scale violence which resulted in injuries to over 10 cops on December 20, 2019.
Raking up the issue of anti-national slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Shah said, “Some youth raised anti-national slogans, Bharat tere tukde honge ek hazar, insha allah insha allah. Shouldn't they be put behind bars? But Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal want to save them. But why do they want to save those youth who raised anti-nationals, are they their (Rahul Gandhi and Kejriwal’s) cousins?,” questioned Shah.
He added in the same vein, “Listen Kejriwal (Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal), whoever raises anti-national slogans will only find place behind bars and nowhere else.”
Taking on the opposition parties for opposing the CAA, Shah accused leaders like former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for misleading minority community over the amended law. “I’ll make it clear once again, this law will grant Indian citizenship to religious minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and Christians who have been living in our country as refugees due to religious persecution in those three nations. But that in no way means taking away the existing citizenship of any Indian national. I dare the opposition leaders to show me one provision of the amended law which will take away the citizenship of any Indian.”
Accusing the opposition parties for inciting violence in the country by misleading people over the CAA, Shah said by opposing the CAA and misleading people over it, ex-Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his party have not only belied the wishes and promises of Mahatma Gandhi and Congress’s past leaders, including country’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Acharya Kriplani, but have also gone against its poll promise of rendering citizenship rights to Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan who are settled in Rajasthan. “In its poll manifesto in Rajasthan, the Congress had promised citizenship rights to Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan, but the same party is now opposing the CAA.”
He also questioned why the Human Rights lobbies across the world have been silent over atrocities on religious minorities in Pakistan, where the Gurdwara Nankana Sahib was attacked recently by a mob led by the boy who abducted and converted Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur (the daughter of the Gurdwara granthi).
Blaming the Congress for country’s partition in 1947 on religious lines, Shah’s questioned the Congress’s silence on how and why the Hindu population in East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh) fell from 30% to 7% and from 25% to just 3% in West Pakistan (modern Pakistan).
The union home minister also questioned West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to CAA, particularly when 75% of refugees from Bangladesh and Pakistan settled there, including the Matua community are Dalits.
The BJP president also slammed the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh for its latest decision to allow existing licensed liquor contractors to open sub shops on paying more. “Expansion and extension of factories is understandable, but extension/expansion of liquor vends is hard to comprehend.”
80 Youth Congress and NSUI activists trying to black flag Shah detained
As many as 80 Youth Congress and National Students Union of India (NSUI) activists trying to proceed to Garrison Ground to show black flags to the home minister during hour and half visit to Jabalpur were taken in preventive custody under Section 151 of CrPc and released later on filling personal bonds, confirmed SP of Jabalpur district Amit Singh.