AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday condemned the sedition charges against a school head teacher and a student's mother in Karnataka for their alleged involvement in staging a drama on CAA and NRC, and hinted at a ‘jail bharo andolan' over filing of cases against Prime Minister Narendra Modi critics.
Owaisi was speaking at a Women's Protest Conference against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) organised by the United Muslim Action Committee.
"If somebody speaks against Modi, sedition cases are filed. I want to tell Narendra Modi that time will come wherein we will decide on when and what time to launch the jail bharo programme,” Owaisi said.
"All the jails in India can keep only three lakh people. If all of us come on roads, these prisons in India are inadequate to keep all of us. You (either) keep us in jails or shoot us with bullets," he said, while referring to the incident in Bidar where two women were arrested in a sedition case booked against a school for allegedly staging a play against CAA and NRC. He shared at the meeting impressions of his visit to a jail in Bidar to meet the two arrested women.
The mother of a student and a head teacher of Shaheen Primary and High School were booked for sedition by Bidar police, based on a complaint from Nilesh Rakshala, an activist of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after the play was staged by students of classes 4, 5 and 6.
Owaisi said that the head teacher is unwell. The student's mother is a widow and her six-year-old daughter is being looked after by her house owner, he said.
Owaisi said while these women were arrested and jailed on serious charges, nothing was done against a Union Minister who raised slogans of 'goli maro'.
The MP said as a result of this slogan, a terrorist opened fire on Jamia Millia Islamia students, injuring a student on January 30 while another terrorist opened fire in the air at Shaheen Bagh on Saturday.
"The terrorist was raising slogans that this is the country of Hindus. I want to say that this is not the country of Hindus or Muslims or Christians. It is not the country of people of any one religion. This is the country of even those who don't believe in any religion," Owaisi said.
Owaisi said the ongoing struggle against CAA, NRC and NPR is a long-drawn battle and people should be prepared for it. "The forces which we are fighting against are full of RSS and Hindutva ideology since childhood," the Hyderabad MP said, adding there is a need to save the country from ‘Hindutva ideology’.
"I sincerely believe that the people of the country will give befitting reply to BJP and RSS in a democratic way. The sacrifices of the people will not be forgotten. The fight is to save the Constitution of our country. In this struggle, even if we have to do some more sacrifices we are ready to do it," he said.
He compared the present state of affairs in India with that of Germany during Hitler's rule.
Women leaders of various organisations condemned the highhanded attitude of Hyderabad police and sought Owaisi's help for staging Shaheen Bagh-like protests in Hyderabad.
With IANS and PTI inputs