by MEGHNAD BOSE 14 January 2020
As the massive protests against CAA, NRC and NPR continue across India, senior BJP leaders are making hateful remarks targeting those who oppose the Modi government over these three policies.
The news cycle has been so brutally short that several of these comments may have escaped your notice, especially with so much going on. So, we made a list of some of the most divisive statements made by senior BJP leaders in the past few weeks, a few of which are clear examples of incitement to violence.
Why has the BJP leadership not announced any action against these netas?
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BJP Minister’s Threat: Remember Gujarat Riots
On 19 December, Karnataka’s Tourism and Culture Minister CT Ravi said that incidents like the Godhra riots might get repeated if the “majority community loses its patience.”
He said, “It is this very mindset, that burnt a train in Godhra… and people of this mindset burnt karsevaks alive. Because the majority community here is patient, you are trying to put fires everywhere. I advise you to look back and see what happens when our patience runs out.”
Referring to Congress MLA UT Khader in Karnataka, he added, “I think Khader knows what happens if there is a reaction, he has seen what happened when people rose in an uprising after the burning of a train in Godhra.”
BJP Leader Wants to Bury Dissenters
On 12 January, Raghuraj Singh, a BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh said, “These one percent people opposing the CAA. They stay in India, eat up our taxes and then raise ‘murdabad’ slogans against the leaders. Slogan shouting against the prime minister or chief minister is unacceptable. If you raise slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, I will bury you alive.”
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BJP Spokesperson Says ‘Thok Denge’ to Kanhaiya Kumar
Watch BJP spokesperson Amitabh Sinha’s open threat to former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on air on India Today, from 14:24 in the following video.
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The ‘More in Numbers’ Threat
At a programme supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Karnataka’s Ballari district, BJP MLA G Somasekhara Reddy said, “We are 80 percent and you (those against CAA) are just 17 percent. Imagine what will happen to you if we turn against you.”
BJP MP Boasts of BJP Governments Shooting Down People ‘Like Dogs’
BJP Bengal president Dilip Ghosh courted controversy on 12 January by threatening to shoot and kill those involved in damaging public property “in the same way as in Uttar Pradesh”.
With Ghosh’s comment is effectively countering the official stand of BJP governments in states like UP, Union Minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo condemned his statement by saying, “Very irresponsible of Dilip da to have said what he said.”
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When a Union Minister Turned Wistful About Stone Pelting
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri commented about those opposing the CAA, “All this is misleading, this is treachery. Someone said that CAA, like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, is made up of lies. If I was still in a university and easily persuaded to pelt stones, I would have picked up a stone and pelted it at that guy.”
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