“Don’t forget Gujarat. Remember before taking us on, you dogs,” a rally of men screamed as they marched through the town of Kuttiady in Kozhikode, Kerala in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“Remember Gujarat? Remember it before you take us on” – menacing slogans at the pro-CAA/NRC march by the BJP on Monday at Kuttiady, Kozhikode (Kerala) according to reports. This is the real face of the RSS-BJP, no matter how much they try to whitewash it. pic.twitter.com/dMYUA7h2qg
— Subin Dennis (@subindennis) January 14, 2020
Armed with saffron flags, the protestors did not chant pro-CAA slogans and were instead heard raising violent threats to the Muslims, The News Minute reported. The slogan ‘Don’t forget Gujarat’ was to remind those protesting against the CAA of the genocide of over 1900 Muslims in Gujarat when Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as Chief Minister there in 2002.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had organized a ‘Save the Country’ public meeting in Kozhikode in protest of which most of the shopkeepers pulled down their shutters and boycotted the attempt of the BJP to gain support for the CAA and NRC.
The meeting that was supposed to begin at 5 P.M. saw no attendance of the people from the towns it was held in. Shops shut at around 3 P.M. before the BJP General Secretary M.T. Ramesh was to address the public.
Ramesh had faced similar embarrassment in the town of Valanjavazhi where a total shutdown took place before his public meeting.
The same scenario was repeated at Narikkuni reported Deccan Herald where BJP state vice president A.P. Abdullakutty was to address a pro-CAA meeting.
According to DH, the shutdown took place under the aegis of the Constitution Protection Council, the secular democratic spearhead of the anti-CAA protests that alerted people with WhatsApp messages asking them to stay away from town and not be onlookers at their programme.
TNM said that the protest took a communal turn after the ferried supporters of the BJP faced such opposition from the town locals and the same was confirmed to the publication by the Chief Inspector of Kuttiady police station.
Following the incident, the Kuttiady police registered a case against the participants in the rally under Sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the IPC.
“The case has been registered against the entire rally. We are yet to identify the persons involved in the incident and arrest them,” an officer from the Kuttiady Police Station told TNM.
Responding to the incident, Thomas Isaac, Kerala’s Finance Minister put out a statement on Facebook saying, “Nobody has forgotten Gujarat. We don’t intend to forget it and we will constantly remind people about it. That memory is out greatest weapon to destroy the BJP’s communal agenda.”
“”I am not surprised by the slogans raised by the BJP workers in Kuttiyadi. It is the Islamophobia that has seeped into the blood of Narendra Modi and a common BJP supporter that was on display there. How long can they camouflage this? On the one hand, BJP is holding door-to-door campaigns and public rallies in the name of comforting Muslims, on the other they issue threats to Muslims asking them if they remember Gujarat,” he added.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has stood in staunch opposition against the BJP over its decision to implement the CAA-NPR-NRC in the country. The Kerala Legislative Assembly was the first to pass a resolution against the CAA calling it unconstitutional, asking the Centre to scrap the same.
However, since the country has erupted in protests against the BJP’s decision for the CAA and NRC, there has been a big jump in hate speech with the first coming from the Prime Minister himself when he said one could identify protestors from the “clothes they wear” targeting a minority community.
Since then everyone from a Bajrang Dal leader to BJP State President for Kolkata Dilip Ghosh have been booked for threatening to kill and beat up anti-CAA protestors. UP BJP MLA threatened of burying alive all those who protested against the CAA and CT Ravi, a Karnataka BJP leader also warning protestors of a ‘Godhra-like’ situation.
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