RSS mouthpiece says ‘jihadist-communist’ alliance behind CAA protests, courts should step in

The editorial in RSS mouthpiece Organiser says the 'jihadist-communist' alliance is using the debate around the Citizenship Act to incite violence.

Students raise slogans during a protest against police atrocity and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), in Bengaluru | PTI file photo

New Delhi: RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ has demanded intervention by courts to stop the protests taking place across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), calling the protesters part of “jihadist-communist” alliance using violence “to create anarchy”.

This comes days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanded that ‘tukde-tukde gang’ led by the Congress needs to be taught a lesson. He held the Congress responsible for the violence reported during the anti-CAA protests in the last few weeks. 

The editorial titled ‘Fix the Instigators, not Just Rioters’, published earlier this week, added that the decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to act against rioters and violent protesters by arresting nearly 900 people and lodging 213 FIRs, especially in Lucknow, Kanpur, Rampur, has triggered controversy for “no reason”.

“The so-called liberal voices suddenly began their rant against the popular target, Yogi Adityanath. The Jihadist-Communist alliance, which anyways wants to use violence to create anarchy in the name of protests, is effectively using the entire debate on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register for Citizenship (NRC) for spreading falsehood and instigating violence,” it added.

‘Ordinary Muslims don’t know about CAA, NRC’

Contacted for a comment, editor of the ‘Organiser’ Prafulla Ketkar told ThePrint: “Ordinary Muslims don’t know about the CAA, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register.”

“But it was observed that there is a continuous design by some groups to instigate them. It has been going on for a few months before the bill was even introduced (in the Parliament),” he added.

Calling for courts’ intervention to stop the anti-CAA protests, the RSS mouthpiece gave some examples of judgments that banned demonstrations.

“In 1997, the Kerala High Court delivered an important judgement by banning a bandh. The court said there cannot be any right to call or enforce a bandh, which interferes with the people’s right to exercise fundamental freedom. In a similar case on 14 September 2005, the Bombay High Court imposed a fine of Rs 20 lakh on the Shiv Sena and the BJP as compensation for loss of properties during protests,” it added.

The editorial said the crux of these court verdicts is that no person has any right to cause inconvenience to people or to cause threat to life or destroy public properties.

‘State govts should recover the losses’

The mouthpiece said it is the duty of the state governments to recover the losses incurred during protests.

“The Uttar Pradesh government is doing that. It is unfortunate that some state governments are involved in instigating protesters…Identifying these intellectuals, politicians and organisations is our democratic duty, otherwise we will move towards ‘anarchy’ as warned by (B.R.) Ambedkar and wished by ‘Maoist terrorists’,” it said.

Ambedkar quote to make a point 

Quoting Ambedkar, the editorial said the Father of the Indian Constitution had said on 25 November 1949: “When there is no constitutional method left to achieve economic and social objectives, then there is some justification for using unconstitutional methods. But when constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification to use unconstitutional means. Such means are nothing but the grammar of anarchy.”

The RSS has started awareness campaigns across the country to explain CAA to people, with special focus on Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and the Northeast, which have seen violent protests.