OPPOSITION PARTIES KNOCK ON PREZ'S DOORS
Opposition leaders led by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met President Ramnath Kovind to urge him to advise the Modi government, as the custodian of the Constitution, to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has put the country into turmoil.
The 15-party delegation also urged Kovind to allow the students to protest peacefully against the unconstitutional legislation. They told the President that the government had forced the passage of the law in Parliament last week despite all advising him to desist from it.
They also complained to him about the barbaric attack by the police on students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University.
The delegation, however, did not include the Shiv Sena despite Uddhav Thackeray comparing the government's crackdown to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the President, Sonia said the tense situation created by the Act may worsen further. She said the delegation had expressed its anguish at the way the police barged into the campus and beat up even girl students.
"The Modi government has no compunction in shutting down voices of the people not acceptable to it. This is not acceptable in democracy," she said.
A memorandum has been submitted urging the President to intervene and ask the government to establish an inquiry commission to bring to book all those guilty of perpetuating violence on the students in Jamia, AMU and other educational institutions.
It said: "The State must realise that citizens do not have the capacity to challenge it and the only way they can express their opposition is through peaceful protests."
"If the legitimate constitutional right to protest is sought to be muzzled in this fashion, our democracy will be destroyed. We exhort you to protect the federal structure of the nation and to ensure that this federal structure is not disturbed by the government of India by abusing state power," the memorandum said.