Will not engage with tukde tukde gang: BJP to Cong, AAP

As protests over Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) deepened and more University campuses lent their weight behind it, the government has reached out to calm the frayed tempers, saying it has no problem in talking to those who have concerns but will not engage with politicians fanning it or “tukde tukde gang”.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar hit out at Congress and AAP saying these parties are in favour of foreign infiltrators and rued "rumours are being spread over CAA and people are being misled."

Talking to a television channel, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "We are ready to talk to the protestors and students. But we will not talk to tukde tukde gang and urban naxals, who pursue politics of violence. They will be dealt with as per law. Those who engage in violence will be dealt with accordingly."

The BJP has been for long targeting the Left-backed student groups with this term and has often taken potshots at Rahul Gandhi for backing such elements.

Earlier in an election rally in Jharkhand, BJP chief Amit Shah had indicated that some changes can be made in the CAA to address the concern of the northeastern states and had expressed his openness to talk to students to clear their misgivings if they come to discuss it with him.

The thinking in the BJP is that protests in localities may not last long more so as the party has already lowered down the rhetoric on national level NRC while the CAA in itself has “nothing that affects Indian Muslims.”

However, with the protest now taking an increasing number of educational institutions under its banner, the party is trying to make a distinction between the students protesting against the Act and politicians coming on streets against it.

Prasad added that while the government is ready to talk to those who have concerns, the traditionally anti-Narendra Modi elements will not be entertained.

On a day protest against CAA engulfed the nation, BJP came out with a video clip of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's 2003 speech (he was not PM then) in the Rajya Sabha. In the speech, Singh had advocated a "most liberal" approach to grant citizenship to minorities from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan.

BJP Working President J P Nadda, who met a group of Sikh refugees, chose to assert the CAA will be implemented and the NRC will also be brought in.

Slamming the opposition’s protest against CAA, he said that a help desk will be operationalised to ensure to quick citizenship to minority refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

“I want to tell those leaders opposing the law that they should avoid vote bank politics and not insult the human aspect of the decision,” he said.

Echoing similar views, Minister for State for Home G Kishan Reddy slammed the Opposition for fuelling protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act by inciting students, women and others in the name of religion.