RSS pamphlets make way to UP homes, shore up support for CAA

The papers explain the need for CAA, claiming that Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians and Parsis on the other side of the border are facing atrocities after partition and continuously fleeing to India for the past 70 years

PRAYAGRAJ: With protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) still continuing in many parts of the country, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed organisations have also come in defence of the government.

As part of its campaign to counter the narrative, Lok Jagran Manch, an RSSbacked organisation, has come up with a pamphlet carrying pictures of minor Hindu girls allegedly abducted, sexually abused and converted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan putting forth a strong case in favour of the contentious law.

The new citizenship law provides a path to naturalization for immigrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, unless they’re Muslim. It has triggered nationwide protests and clashes with police that have led to 23 deaths.

Apart from holding public meetings in different cities and villages, the RSS cadre plans to distribute these pamphlets in awareness programme for CAA being organised across towns, villages and development blocks of Uttar Pradesh.

The pamphlet explains the need for CAA, claiming that Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians and Parsis on the other side of the border are facing atrocities after partition and continuously fleeing to India for the past 70 years. The law, it points out, has been brought to grant them Indian citizenship.

Bearing a photograph of Father of the Nation, the pamphlets cite Mahatma Gandhi’s views that every Hindu and Sikh residing in Pakistan could always come to India if they do not wish to live in Pakistan.

“Then providing jobs to them and making their life normal would be the first duty of the Indian government,” it said claiming that Gandhi expressed these views during a prayer meeting held on September 26, 1947.

The rear side of the pamphlet has five passport size photographs of minor Hindu girls aged between 12 to 17 years who have been abducted and abused in these neighbouring countries.

The pamphlet claims that on an average every day a Hindu girl or a girl child is being kidnapped in Sindh province of Pakistan and after which they are forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man. It says that some of these girls are as young as eight years.

Referring to the recent incident of Nankana Sahib in Punjab province of Pakistan, the pamphlet points out that 19-year-old daughter of a granthi was kidnapped at gunpoint on August 28, 2019.

Besides five points on the misconceptions and the ‘truth’ of the law, the pamphlet also claims that the decreasing count of Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, grabbing of temples and lands of Hindus as all reasons that demand implementation of the CAA.

Though the RSS functionaries are refusing to comment on the Lok Jagran Manch initiative, the fact that a large scale participation of RSS activists in all these initiatives, including the recently organised Tiranga Yatra testify to the support to it by the BJP’s parent organisation.

“We are fully backing the public awareness initiative. As many as 60 lakh of these pamphlets have been printed for distribution in UP alone at a rate of over 10 lakh for each of the six pranths in which the state is divided by BJP and RSS,” shared a senior RSS functionary.

Besides the pamphlet, two booklets on misinformation and doubts have also been printed on CAA and are being distributed among the opinion-makers and community leaders. Starting January 18, a number of major public meetings to spread awareness regarding the CAA have been planned in UP as part of a nationwide initiative of BJP.

These pamphlets are to be distributed

all these meetings, said RSS leaders.

Saurabh Srivsatava, who is RSS’s Sampark Pramukh, in Prayagraj said, “The pamphlets and the booklets aim to educate people and counter the systematic disinformation being spread by opposition leaders on CAA.”

BJP spokesperson of Prayagraj district Pawan Srivastava said his party and party workers are fully backing the awareness initiatives being undertaken under the banner of Lok Jagran Manch.

“The pamphlet is just aimed at putting the truth of the CAA before people,”

he said.

The kidnappings, rapes and conversions of Hindu girls and other atrocities are well documented and this is the reason why the CAA has been introduced,” he claimed.

BJP media in-charge of Kashi Pranth Mrityunjay Tiwari said the anti-CAA protests were politically motivated and it for this reason that RSS and BJP along with affiliated and sister organisations, including ABVP, Akhil Bhartita Adhivakta Sangh, Seva Bharti etc, are all working together under the banner of Lok Jagran Manch.

LUCKNOW: The numbers increased at the ongoing protest led by women against CAA and NRC at Clock Tower in the Chowk area of Lucknow as the sit-in entered the third day on Sunday. The women had started the protest on Friday by occupying the pedestal of the Clock Tower.

Over 50 women spent Saturday night in the open, braving the cold after police officials allegedly prevented them from setting up a makeshift tent.

As many as 300 more women, who arrived from all parts of the city, have now joined the group, which is staging a sit-in.

The women held placards and shouted slogans against implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the much talked about National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Parliament had passed CAA in December last year.

“The government wants to make us second grade citizens in our country. I have lived my entire life in Lucknow, but I have no papers to prove my ancestry. Where will I go if my citizenship is revoked? I am here to fight for myself,” said Banno Begum, 62, a widow who sells vegetables to earn a living.

While the Bharatiya Janta Party government has claimed that NRC and CAA will not affect Indian citizens, the assurance has failed to pacify many like Banno Begum, who is among the women, especially those from the Muslim community, participating in these protests. Similar protests are being held in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh and Prayagraj’s Roshan Bagh. “The women protesting at Shaheen Bagh, Kanpur and Prayagraj motivate us to fight against CAA and NRC. We get strength from them and we will continue our protest till they

are revoked,” said Nishat Afroz, a teacher participating in the protest.

The protesting women have also started reaching out to people from other communities.

“The protest is for our country. Our friends in other communities have assured their support for us. We want more such people to come out of their homes and participate,” said Sumaira Khan, a social activist.

Beside the cold weathers, the protesters alleged they are facing constant pressure from local police and administration.

The protesters alleged the administration switched off the light on Saturday night and filled a ground water with water to force them to turn back.

The police, on other hand, refuted these claims.