Panaji, Jan 28: Bureaucrat-turned-activist Kannan Gopinathan on Tuesday said even some "RSS people" are convinced the Citizenship Amendment Act is a bad law but are keeping quiet as the NDA government at the Centre is their own baby.
Speaking in Panaji, he further said the Narendra Modi government was behaving like a "drunken teenager" which needs to be questioned or else it will end up destroying homes.
"I was detained twice in UP, kept the whole day, because they (government) do not want the questioning (of CAA). I have met so many RSS people, they also understand this...if you have this conversation, they also understand the government has done something (wrong) and they have been asked to support it," he claimed.
He said the line of thought among these RSS people (he met) was "just support it (CAA)" as they don't want an altercation because the "government is their baby".
"He (government) is not a normal baby, he is a drunken teenager. He should be asked questions because when he starts destroying, he does not destroy somebody else's home but your own home," Gopinathan said.
He also hit out at those who have been claiming that the people protesting against the CAA are unaware about the law and have not even read it.
Gopinathan claimed if one had asked supportive MPs about the CAA on the day it was passed in Parliament, several of them would not have been able to speak on it as "they would not have known what was passed, because they were not given time (to go through the bill)".
He said, earlier, such legislation was passed after several rounds of consultation but "now, by night, it becomes an Act", adding (now) "everything is a surgical strike".
Gopinathan, in a possible reference to the National Register of Citizens exercise carried out in Assam, also claimed "thousands of people are in detention centres".
"It is your fundamental right to peacefully assemble without arms, Article 19 (1) (D) (of the Constitution)," he said at a function organised by a group opposed to CAA.
Gopinathan said people "always felt they were in a democracy" because they never tried to fly, when in reality "you are in a cage".
"The moment you want to fly you realise you are in a cage," he said, adding that "we have to question, we have to ask ourselves where are we going".
"When you don't allow a person to speak against an incorrect legislation, then what is democracy? What is freedom of expression?" Gopinathan questioned.
Gopinathan, a 2012 batch AGMUT cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, was the secretary, Power Department of the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli when he resigned on August 21 last year.
At the time, he had claimed the people of Jammu and Kashmir were being denied freedom of expression following abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre.
Comments
Rightly said.
Partriotism is not by force, not by singing any song, or not by showing anything.
It is the love for the people of the nation.
If this is missing, he or she is not nationalist.
Singing the vande mataram, it is a debatable subject. If one has no objection of its contents, no problem to sing.
But still it is up to him to sing or not to sing. Not by force.
If anybody of the opinion to sing it, then will they read holy books all other religions and will they follow it.
No, not possible to do it. Therefore dont force to sing.
The truth is, ISLAM is purely based believing in 1 and only Go.
That is ONE-NESS OF GOD. Anything contradicts the 1ness is unforgivable sin.
There is no other sin above it. This is the strong principle of ISLAM. Muslims are ready for any sacrifices to follow it.
Unfortunately Most of the people even Many Muslims dont know it.
It is better to know the principle of every religion. It does not mean to follow it.
But knowing the fact can help to clear many doubts.
May God help.
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