'After Union minister Anurag Thakur, another BJP leader has triggered a row with his controversial remarks on Shaheen Bagh. In an open threat to those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Shaheen Bagh, BJP MP Parvesh Verma said if the party is voted to power in Delhi, it will only take an hour to clear off the protest in the area... "Lakhs of people gather there [Shaheen Bagh]. People of Delhi will have to think and take a decision. They will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, kill them.
'...On December 19, when there was a call for protest against CAA, we decided to conduct a peaceful protest at Parivartan Chowk. Suddenly, a group of boys wearing skull caps came and started pelting stones. I found it strange that, even though Section 144 had been imposed, the police couldn’t detect a group of protesters carrying bricks and petrol. I can say with responsibiity that the stone-pelting was orchestrated. Another strange thing that happened was that when the arson started, someone drove a state transport bus at the protest spot. Police kept standing but didn’t take any action.
'Messages urging people to “thrash the anti-nationals” in JNU allegedly did rounds of some WhatsApp groups in the hours leading up to the violence on campus Sunday. The Indian Express managed to contact six people from whose mobile numbers the messages threatening violence were made in the groups. Out of the six, three said someone else may have “misused” their number to post the messages, one said his “friend posted the message”, two others said they entered the groups to “provide intel”.
'Violence has reportedly escalated within Jawaharlal Nehru University, with students, including the students’ union president, alleging that they were attacked by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad while the police looked on. Reports of stone-pelting were reported from within campus on Saturday as well. Students The Wire spoke to said ABVP members were walking through the campus carrying sticks with masks or scarves on their faces, looking for students associated with the fee hike protest.
'Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, known for his affinity for controversial remarks, on Thursday criticised people leading protests over the new citizenship law. He said leadership is not about guiding masses, including students, into carrying out “arson and violence.” His comments drew sharp reactions from opposition leaders. “Leaders are not those who lead people in inappropriate directions, as we are witnessing in a large number of university and college students, the way they are leading masses of crowds to carry out arson and violence in our cities and towns.
'A German student in the Master’s course in the Department of Physics at IIT Madras, part of a one-year exchange programme, has said that he was asked to leave the country “immediately” days after he attended protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the campus. Speaking to The Indian Express from the Chennai airport shortly before his scheduled flight home Monday night, Jakob Lindenthal said he received “oral directions” to leave India from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in (FRRO) in Chennai around noon...
'The “goli maaro saalon ko” slogan was back at a pro-Citizenship Act rally in Nagpur, organised, according to the news agency ANI, by the RSS, the BJP, the Lok Adhikar Manch and other organisations. A huge banner representing the colours of the Indian National Flag was carried by the demonstrators during the rally, which took place on Sunday. The crowd chanted slogans like “kisko chahiye azadi” (who wants freedom) and “desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko” (shoot the traitors)...'
'On the night of December 18, former cricketer and incumbent BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly posted a tweet in reference to his daughter, Sana Ganguly. “Please keep Sana out of all this issues .. this post is not true .. she is too young a girl to know about anything in politics.”... Ganguly’s tweet came as multiple users on Twitter posted a purported screenshot of Sana’s Instagram story – an excerpt on fascism from Kushwant Singh’s book ‘The End of India’. A part of the passage reads, “Every fascist regime needs communities and groups it can demonize in order to thrive.
'The assault on students at Jamia Millia by Delhi police prompted filmmaker Anurag Kashyap to return on Twitter and expressed his anger on the recent developments. Reacting to police lathicharge on the Jamia students, Kashyap called the Modi government “fascist” and said, “he can’t stay silent any longer”... Other voices from the film industry also condemned the police action inside the Jamia University. Actor Taapsee Pannu said the videos of police action inside the campus were heartbreaking. “Wonder if this is a start or the end.
'...We propose that it is time to call this regime by its name. What we are seeing is not procedural or substantive fascism; this is fascism, this is how it has always operated, and there is no need for any doubt, confusion or surprise when it comes to its methods (total disregard for future consequences of their actions so long as they gain more power) or its aims (absolute domination of every sphere of human life, from the political to the economic, social and cultural). To understand this is crucial.
