Amid rising protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said raising of ‘Azadi’ slogans in the name of protests amount to sedition and the government will take strict action against such protesters.
“If anyone will raise slogans of Azadi in the name of protest, it will amount to sedition and the government will take strict action. It can’t be accepted. People can’t be allowed to conspire against India from Indian soil,” the chief minister said at a pro-CAA rally in Kanpur.
The new law promises citizenship to members of 6 non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India before December 31, 2014.
Taking a potshot at women-led rallies against the CAA and NRC, Adityanath said. “What they have done now is to make their women sit on roads. How big a crime it is that while men sleep inside homes, they have put their women forward.”
“How shameful it is that Congress, Samajwadi Party and Left parties are doing politics at the cost of the country. To protest the government they are putting the women on the front who don’t know what CAA is.”
Massive protests have erupted across the country against the controversial citizenship law and the proposed NRC. At Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, women have been sitting on protest for over a month with similar protests sprouting across the country including in UP capital Lucknow.
Critics say that the new law is against the secular nature of the Indian Constitution and clubbed with the NRC may be misused to strip away some Muslims’ citizenship in the country. The BJP, however, has argued that the law has nothing to do with India’s Muslims and only helps those who fled religious persecution in the neighbouring countries.
Source: dnaindia.com