'Shaheen Bagh textbook case of few hundred trying to suppress silent majority'

New Delhi: Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday alleged that Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protest is emerging as a "textbook case of a few hundred people trying to suppress the silent majority". He claimed that those trying to fragment India are getting cover at Shaheen Bagh protest where the tricolour is being waved.

"It is offering a platform to 'tukde tukde gang' elements under the garb of opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. This protest is not just a protest against CAA, it is a protest against Modi," Prasad said in a press conference. With Delhi Assembly polls scheduled to be held on February 8, the top leadership of the BJP has sharpened its attack on the Congress and AAP over the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh.

The BJP has been out of power in Delhi for more than two decades and is working hard to up the ante against the ruling AAP and Congress over several issues especially the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh which began in mid-December following violence during an anti-CAA demonstration at the Jamia Millia Islamia.

"Lakhs of people are distressed because they can not go to office, shops are shut and their children are not able to go to school due to the road being blocked by the protesters," Prasad said. Shaheen Bagh is not just a locality but an "idea", he said, adding that "under the cover of the tricolour, those seeking to dismember the country are being given shelter at Shaheen Bagh and innocent children are being tricked into threatening violence against the prime minister."

The CAA does not deprive anyone of his/her citizenship and each Muslim citizen of this country will continue to live with full respect, he said.

"Shaheen Bagh is a textbook case of a few hundred people seeking to suppress the silent majority. The truth of it needs to be presented before the country," he said.