Senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi Monday decried the attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University students and said it points to BJP's policy of repressing protests by youths.
The attack indicate that the Narendra Modi government has no concern for democratic norms and the democracy in the country is under threat, he told newsmen here.
"We condemn this act. Such actions will bring further misfortune to the country as the very fabric of the nation's unity and integrity has been threatened.... The protests against the CAA started in Assam and the movement against it strengthened in the state. But soon it spread across the country with the government adopting repressive measures to repress it," the Congress leader said.
The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens across the country have made it clear that Indians do not want the kind of Hindutva that the BJP and the RSS want to bring in the country, he said.
Continuing his attack, the Congress veteran said "The prime minister alleges that we(Congress) are talking the language of Pakistan, but it is he who has reduced himself to the level of the neighbouring country. He is following Jinnah's two-nation theory on the basis of religion and has emerged as an avatar of India's Hindu Jinnah," Gogoi said.
"We are Hindus but we don't want our country to become a Hindu Rastra. The majority of the people who are protesting and even those killed are Hindus. They do not want the Hindutva the BJP and RSS are propagating," he said.
But the Modi government is so arrogant that it will go to any extent to ensure that its agenda is imposed on the people and will not budge an inch as far as the implementation of the Act is concerned, the former Assam chief minister said.
He said in Assam five unarmed innocent youths were killed during the protests against the CAA, but the BJP governments at the Centre and the state sing the same tune saying that Congress and the Left are involved in the violence.
"Are we so powerful that we can instigate AASU, AJYCP, KMSS and all other regional organisations to come out on the streets to protest.... There is no conspiracy. But the BJP has no political knowledge and are not interested in listening to the voice of the people," Gogoi said.
He challenged the BJP to call an election immediately in Assam and claimed that they will not win even 25 seats.
"The BJP must go from power and all parties must ensure its defeat at the polls.
It is only if the BJP is defeated in Assam that we can ensure that the CAA is not implemented in the state," Gogoi added.
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