Adityanath also took a jibe at the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, and the Left parties, accusing them of playing politics at the cost of the country
Kanpur: Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday warned that those raising the ‘Azadi’ slogan during protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). They will be charged with sedition in UP.
“If anyone will raise slogans of ‘Azadi’ in the name of agitation, it will amount to sedition and the government will take strict action. It is unacceptable. People who create conspiracy against India from Indian soil will be not allowed,” Adityanath said while addressing a pro-CAA rally in Kanpur.
The ‘Azadi’ slogan has observed everywhere at the demonstrations held countrywide against the CAA that speeds up the naturalization process for six communities from India’s three neighbours but excludes Muslims from its ambit.
Once avoided and branded as “anti-national”, the chant has reverberated at the agitation, taken up by youngsters in universities and by old women in Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and the clock tower in Lucknow.
The slogan has been used to ask ‘Azadi’ from CAA, NRC, divisive politics and the many other socio-economic problems that India faces. But Adityanath implied it was only being used to demand the ‘Kashmir-wali Azadi’ from Uttar Pradesh’s soil.
Agitation against the CAA has continued in the state despite a brutal crackdown by the police, leading to the death of 19 demonstrators last month.
Adityanath claimed that as the opposition lacked the courage to hold agitation, it was using the women and children as a “shield”.
“The women who are demonstrating they do not know the reason against the protest. Women are being made to arrange dharnas while the men are sleeping in quilts at their homes. These women say the men now say they have become disabled,” Adityanath said.
Adityanath was referring to the protest by women at the iconic Husainabad clock tower in Lucknow, which is similar to the Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.
Recently the UP Police had seized blankets and eatables, switched off the street lights, and locked the public toilet near the venue to force the women to call off their dharna, but the vigil has continued. Their resistance has also inspired women in other parts of the state to sit on protest against the act.
“The anti-CAA protesters do not have the courage to participate in the protests themselves. They know if they involve in vandalism, their property will be seized,” said Adityanath who had earlier warned protesters against vandalizing vehicles and properties in the state, saying they would have to pay for the damages.
Adityanath also took a jibe at the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, and the Left parties, accusing them of playing politics at the cost of the country.
“For them, the nation is not important. The Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis are not prior. Now, for them, even Christians are not important. Congress has said the protests will continue against the CAA until the ISI agents are given entry in India. This is a shameful comment made by Congress leaders,” he said.
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