Shaheen Bagh protestors will ‘rape your sisters and daughters’, says BJP MP on women-led protest
Parvesh Verma’s comments come after a series of statements by the BJP characterising the peaceful protests as violent and treasonous.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Parvesh Verma on Tuesday claimed that Delhi voters must think hard about which party they choose in the upcoming election because “lakhs of protestors” gathering in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh locality to demonstrate against the Citizenship Amendment Act will enter their homes to “rape their sisters and daughters and kill them”, ANI reported.
Hundreds of women, along with children, have been peacefully protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens at Shaheen Bagh for almost a month and a half. The law has been widely criticised as discriminatory and Indian Muslims fear it could be used with the NRC to harass and disenfranchise them.
#WATCH: BJP MP Parvesh Verma says, "...Lakhs of people gather there (Shaheen Bagh). People of Delhi will have to think & take a decision. They'll enter your houses, rape your sisters&daughters, kill them. There's time today, Modi ji & Amit Shah won't come to save you tomorrow..." pic.twitter.com/1G801z5ZbM
— ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2020
“Arvind Kejriwal says I am with Shaheen Bagh, the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia says I am with Shaheen Bagh,” Verma told ANI. “The people of Delhi know the fire that once broke out in Kashmir, where the sisters and daughters of Kashmiri Pandits were raped...The same fire broke out in Uttar Pradesh, in Hyderabad, in Kerala, now the same fire has broken out in a corner of Delhi.”
“Lakhs of people gather there [Shaheen Bagh],” Verma said. “The people of Delhi will have to carefully and thoughtfully make a decision. These people will enter your homes, they will pick up your sisters and daughters and rape and kill them.”
He continued: “Today there is time. Tomorrow Modi ji won’t come to save you, Amit Shah won’t come to save you. The people of Delhi are safe only till Modi ji is the prime minister of India.”
Verma’s comments came a day after Union minister Anurag Thakur had encouraged the audience at a rally to shout an incendiary slogan. Thakur, the minister of state for finance, shouted “desh ke gaddaron ko”, and the crowd responded with “goli maaro saalon ko [shoot the traitors to the country]”.
On Monday, Verma said Shaheen Bagh protests will be cleared in an hour if the BJP won the Delhi Assembly elections, News18 reported. “If the BJP comes to power in Delhi on February 11, we will clear Shaheen Bagh of all protest and protesters within one hour. Not a single person will be visible,” he said, while addressing a crowd at a community centre in Ranhola village, West Delhi.
The BJP leader added that within one month all the existing mosques built on government land will be demolished.
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