After 50 Days Of Protests, Govt Finally Agrees To Talk To Anti-CAA Protesters In Shaheen Bagh
The ongoing protests at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) are unprecedented in several levels. It is probably the longest-running mass protest against the Central government in recent years.?
It is also probably for the first time in the country, Muslim women have led such an agitation. It has become so massive, that the women protesters in Shaheen Bagh have inspired similar women-led protests in several parts of the country.?
The sleepy neighborhood which comes under the Okhla constituency has become the de-facto epicenter of the ant-CAA demonstrations in the capital and has no signs of slowing down.?
Now, nearly 50 days after the protests began the Modi government which has so far refused to listen to those opposed to the contentions legislation has given the first indication that it is willing to hold talks.?
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said the government is ready to talk to the protesters at Shaheen Bagh to clear their doubts over the amended Citizenship law, but it should be in a "structured form"."Government is ready to talk to protestors of Shaheen Bagh but then it should be in a structured form and the @narendramodi govt is ready to communicate with them and clear all their doubts they have against CAA," he wrote on Twitter.?
Prasad also shared a video where he spoke about the protest and said it was a "good thing" that people were protesting for days but some people were heard saying on television that there would not be dialogue until the CAA was rolled back."If you want a government representative to talk, then there should be a structured request from Shaheen Bagh which says all the people there want to talk on the subject," Prasad said.
He made it clear that Shaheen Bagh was not the place to hold talks. "What if someone goes there and is mistreated," he said.?
This comes at a time when the BJP which is trying to unseat the AAP government in Delhi in the elections later this month has almost solely been campaigning on the topic of Shaheen Bagh.?
The BJP had also come under heavy criticism after MoS Finance, Anurag Thakur, while speaking at an election rally implied that they should be shot at.BJP’s West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma too had courted controversy after he claimed that Shaheen Bagh protesters would “rape and kill” Delhi residents.?
Even Union Home Minister Amit Shah had invoked Shaheen Bagh in one of his speeches and said told supporters to press the button for the BJP with "so much anger that protesters in Shaheen Bagh feel the current".?
Many have also alleged that it was the provocative speeches of Thakur and Verma that incited a 17-year-old boy to open fire at anti-CAA protesters at Jamia. According to Police, he was originally planning to go to Shaheen Bagh and had even posted on Facebook saying "Game over, Shaheen Bagh" hours before the firing.
Following the comments, Thakur and Verma have been temporarily banned from campaigning by the EC.The BJP has also removed the duo as star campaigners but has roped in another firebrand leader Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who will be addressing several rallies in the area.
