BJP MP Parvesh Verma on Tuesday said what happened in Kashmir with Kashmiri Pandits could happen in Delhi, warning that lakhs of anti-CAA protesters in Shaheen Bagh could enter homes to kill and rape women.
'What happened in Kashmir with Kashmiri Pandits could happen in Delhi also. Lakhs of people gather at Shaheen Bagh, they could enter houses rape and kill your sisters and daughters. The people need to decide now,' Verma said.
A group of women, famous as Shaheen Bagh ki auratein, have been leading the anti-CAA protest for over a month in the south east Delhi area. The women of Shaheen Bagh, on the west bank of the Yamuna in Delhi, began their sit-in on December 15, the day police went on the rampage at the Jamia Millia Islamia university nearby in pursuit of alleged arsonists.
Verma's controversial statement comes amid his party's sharpened attack on the anti-CAA protest, especially at Shaheen Bagh, with Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday alleging that it was a 'textbook case' of a few hundred people 'suppressing' the 'silent majority'.
Prasad also said the protesters were providing a platform to the “tukde-tukde gang” in the garb of opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The assertions came two days after home minister Amit Shah had asked supporters at a rally to press the button beside the “lotus” — the BJP’s election symbol — so hard on February 8 that the current travels to Shaheen Bagh and forces the squatters to leave.
On Monday, lashing out at anti-CAA protesters, Union minister Anurag Thakur courted a controversy at a rally after he egged on the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan that 'traitors should be shot.'
In a purported video posted on social media channels, Thakur is seen shouting 'desh ke gaddaron ko' to which the crowd responds with 'goli maro sa*** ko' (shoot down the traitors).
Thakur was addressing the meeting in support of BJP candidate from Rithala, Manish Chaudhary.
He raised the pitch of nationalism as he linked Opposition parties with anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh and with alleged anti-India slogans, and then asked the crowd to raise the controversial slogan.