Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reaches out to Shaheen Bagh protesters, says govt 'ready to talk'

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Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on February 1 said the Narendra Modi-led BJP government "is ready to talk" to those protesting against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi.

This is perhaps for the first time a Union minister has expressed willingness to communicate with the Shaheen Bagh protestors, who have been staging a sit-in for over 40 days now.

Prasad said that the Centre is ready to communicate with the protestors, adding a caveat that it should be in a "structured form".

He also shared a link of a TV debate in which he participated. In the debate, a person associated with the protest asked the minister why the central government was not trying to communicate with the protesters at Shaheen Bagh.

Government is ready to talk to protestors of Shaheen Bagh but then it should be in a structured form and the @narendramodi govt is ready to communicate with them and clear all their doubts they have against CAA. pic.twitter.com/UjGikFN8tY

— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) February 1, 2020

Prasad said it was a "good thing" that people were protesting for days but some people were heard saying on television that there would not be dialogue until the CAA was rolled back.

"If you want a government representative to talk, then there should be a structured request from Shaheen Bagh which says all the people there want to talk on the subject," Prasad said.

He made it clear that Shaheen Bagh was not the place to hold talks. "What if someone goes there and is mistreated," he said.

The Shaheen Bagh protest site in southeast Delhi is at the centre stage of BJP's polls campaign.

(With inputs from PTI)