Asaduddin Owaisi calls for ‘jail bharo’ drive

Hyderabad: Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi has indicated that he will launch a ‘Jail Bharo’ drive as part of the CAA-NPR-NRC protests. He was addressing the Women’s Protest Meeting held at Jamia Islamia Darul Uloom Hyderabad, Shivrampally organised by the United Muslim Action Committee.

Owaisi said that in Bidar, police sent the headmistress of a school and the mother of a girl student to jail for staging a play against the Citizen’s Amendment Act (CAA) on Republic Day, levelling sedition charges against them. He said it is astounding that if anyone says anything against Prime Minister Modi, the police book him/her on sedition charges.

“This is an act of atrocity. We will say to Mr Modi that a time will come when we decide the time when to start ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’. The entire intake capacity of jails in India is only three lakhs. If we come out onto the roads, jails in India will not be sufficient to keep us. Shoot us and we are ready to face the bullets,” he said.

Owaisi said that the language used by a minister is so filthy that new words have to be introduced in the dictionary. A minister says to shoot the people and no case is booked against him.

The Hyderabad MP said he avoided the Parliament session yesterday and visited Bidar to meet the women who were facing sedition charges for staging the school drama. The government is creating an atmosphere of dismay and fear in this way, he said.

“We don’t want to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the city, but other forces are trying to do so. We have to prepare for a protracted struggle. This is our battle. We have been confronted by forces that are not politicians of the usual kind. Their entire life is contaminated with the RSS ideology and Hindutva culture. Our protest will continue under the banner of the United Muslim Action Committee.”

He said he himself and many organisations have approached the Supreme Court against the CAA. “We are with all those who are protesting all over the India for the last fifty days. When a historian writes the history of new India, he will certainly write that a government whose Prime Minister was Narendra Modi had tried to disgrace the constitution by his arrogance, but the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University had played a historical role in safeguarding the constitution,” he said.