Govt may turn Shaheen Bagh into Jallianwala Bagh after Delhi Assembly election: Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said on February 5 that the government may use brute force to clear Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh of anti-citizenship law demonstrators.

The Shaheen Bagh protesters have been raising their voice against the amended Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) for nearly two months now. Their agenda has been discussed widely  and debated in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly election. While Delhi’s incumbent party has extended its support to their cause, the ruling party at the Centre – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has spared no occasion to rebuke and name and shame them.

Owaisi highlighted the angst of the saffron party and predicted a massacre in the waiting at the protest ground once the election is over. Speaking to news agency ANI, the AIMIM chief, who has made controversial statements in the past, suggested that the BJP might go to any extent to clear the protest ground.

He said: “The BJP members may shoot them. It is possible that they would turn Shaheen Bagh into Jallianwala Bagh, given a BJP leader had suggested to ‘fire shots at them’.”

He was talking about Union Minister Anurag Thakur, who faced immense backlash for prompting his audience to say 'goli maaron … (shoot them...)' after referring to the protestors as 'gaddar (traitors)'. Thakur was campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi’s Rithala when the slogan was raised. He was the same person who had also promised that Shaheen Bagh will be cleared of protestors if the BJP wins the February 8 polls.

When Owaisi predicted a Jallianwala Bagh-type situation, he was referring to the British Raj-era massacre that took place in the year 1919. Soldiers had opened fire at unarmed civilians who had gathered for a peaceful sit-in protest against the colonial oppressors.