Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday accused AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi of being an “agent” of the Samajwadi Party and trying to incite people in the name of a fresh protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Addressing a meeting of BJP booth heads in Kanpur, Mr. Adityanath issued a warning to followers of “ chacha jaan and abba jaan ,” asserting that if they try to “spoil the atmosphere by trying to incite the feelings of the State then the government knows how to deal with them strictly.”
Chacha jaan and Abba jaan are words of affection used by Muslims in parts of India for uncles and fathers, respectively. However, Mr. Adityanath and other BJP leaders have in their political speeches used the terms pejoratively for the minority community, which forms one-fifth of the population in the political behemoth that is U.P.
Targetting Mr. Owaisi, who had on Sunday demanded that the Centre also withdraw the CAA law just as it was repealing the three contentious farm laws and promised a fresh stir if NRC laws are made, Mr. Adityanath said he wanted to warn the Hyderabad MP for trying to incite people in the name of CAA.
“There are no riots in the State today. Everyone knows that Owaisi is an agent of the Samajwadi Party who is doing the work of inciting feelings,” said the Chief Minister, stressing that now U.P. had acquired the identity of a danga-mukt (riots free) State.
At a public meeting in Barabanki on Sunday, Mr. Owaisi, who is looking to make forays into U.P., said the CAA law was against the Constitution made by Babasaheb Ambedkar, and violated the fundamental right to equality.
If the NPR and NRC laws are formed, Mr. Owaisi said, “We will again come out to the streets and make another Shaheen Bagh right here.”
Shaheen Bagh was the site of sustained anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests in New Delhi last year. The site inspired similar sit-in demonstrations in U.P., including its capital Lucknow and important cities like Prayagraj and Kanpur.
