Owaisi demands repeal of CAA & NRC, warns of protests

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be withdrawn at the earliest.

He warned that if the CAA and NRC are not scrapped, protesters will "take to streets and turn it into Shaheen Bagh".

"CAA is against the Constitution. If the BJP government does not take back this law, we will come out on the streets and another Shaheen Bagh will come up here," Owaisi said, addressing a public meeting in Barabanki on Sunday evening.

The AIMIM chief also launched an attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Prime Minister Modi is the biggest 'nautankibaaz' in the country, and by mistake, he has entered politics, else what would have happened to the people of the film industry. All the awards would have been won by Modi," Owaisi said.

"After announcing the repeal of three farm laws, the Prime Minister had said that there had been some shortcoming in his 'tapasya' (penance). This tells us what a big actor our Prime Minister is," he added.

Owaisi said the real 'tapasya' was done by the farmers in their protests during which around 750 of them died.

The AIMIM chief claimed that PM Modi announced the repeal of the farm laws to appease farmers in view of the upcoming Assembly elections.

The AIMIM chief called on the Muslim voters to unite and said, "When Thakurs, Brahmins, Yadavs, Kurmis can become strong by uniting, why can't you?"

He further hit out at the BJP government and held them responsible for the backwardness and unemployment of the Muslim community.

He said, "Today the Ansari community and Qureshi community are on the verge of ruin in UP. The government has left them unemployed. Meat shops of the Qureshi community were locked. Slaughter houses have closed. The income of weavers has decreased. The government is just pretending. No work has been done for this society."