Ever since the violent anti-CAA protests suddenly took grip of the country, it became clear that the protests were neither a spontaneous event nor a students’ movement but based entirely on inflammatory rumours and fear-mongering. What further corroborates the fact that the protests were neither based on a sharp public reaction against the Amendment legislation, nor any movement led by students, the protests have suddenly come to a grinding halt after PM Modi debunked the fake propaganda and rumours which fuelled violence in different parts of the country.
PM Modi addressed a rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday in which he debunked every single rumour and myth that was being blatantly propagated against the CAA. In a single speech, the entire anti-CAA propaganda fizzled out. And now the protests have suddenly stopped as if the “protesters” have been expressly instructed to go into complete hibernation. Ever since Prime Minister’s speech exposing the murkiness of anti-CAA protests, not a single act of violence has taken place, showing how those who were fomenting violence have suddenly realised that they have been exposed and there is no political use of staging such “protests” any longer.
Certain insidious elements staged the protests. Now, there is damning evidence that radical terror organisation SIMI and its affiliate PFI were involved in spreading violence which got manifested during the “protests” against the CAA.
There are markings of PFI and SIMI’s involvement in the “protests” that turned violent across the length and breadth of India from Delhi to Assam, and even in Lucknow and Karnataka. This shows the level of elaborate planning by sinister elements that went into the staged protests, which were made to look like spontaneous and student protests by certain vested interests.
When it comes to violence Delhi and Assam, the involvement of AAP and the Congress makes it further clear that the protests also had a communal and political character attached to them. The objects to be achieved out of the manufactured protests and violence were limited to political gains. Mainstream media, however, was passing them off as popular public protests.
Moreover, the anti-CAA protests never captured the popular imagination of the people unlike the Nirbhaya movement in 2012 or the Anna Hazare movement- both of which met their demands and goals to some extent. On the other hand, the anti-CAA protests was a faceless, political and divisive campaign.
Sinister elements started spreading rumours and fake news about the CAA ever since the Cabinet approved the Amendment Bill. Once, the Parliament passed the legislation, radical organisations and even terror outfits like the SIMI got involved and unleashed violence with the intent hold the country at ransom. There is not a single instance where the citizenry by itself got infuriated and resorted to protests. Protests and violence was almost invariably preceded by rumours against the legislation.
When a protest is legitimate and concerned about the real welfare of the citizenry, it starts gradually as it takes time for public opinion to galvanise by itself. It goes up in intensity as public opinion builds up organically. Once it starts, it sustains for a long period of time and does not fizzle out because it represents public opinion against some real threat. However, the anti CAA protests were never about pursuing public good or preventing a real threat, nor did it have any popular support. This is why it could start all of a sudden as the perpetrators and rioters were already in position to foment violence. Similarly, the protests did not have legitimate public support and once debunked it fizzled out as suddenly as it started. The protests remained inorganic till the very end, and this is why the protests were of the same intensity throughout their short-lived period.
The anti-CAA violence too was sporadic and composed largely of solitary incidents of violence in several cities across the country. The violence too was not spontaneous or unprovoked. There is clear evidence of anti-social and even terror organisations carrying out violence in a planned manner which shows how the violence too was staged by those spreading rumours and myths against the Amendment Act.
The “protests” were murky and illegitimate from their very starting. Most importantly, the protests started without any popular, visible face. There were attempts by sections of the media to prop up two girls as ‘sheros’, however, they turned out to have extremist views. The protests were largely based on lies and conjecture and therefore had a short shelf life for this reason too. Another reason was that most of the people crying ‘fascism,’ were already discredited and known as rabid anti-government faces.
The anti-CAA protests were a real threat to democracy and manifested how ingenuine and sinister elements can come together in an attempt to mislead the entire nation in order to pursue their sinister, anti-people political objectives. The illegitimacy and murky character of the anti-CAA protests and propaganda is the reason why it took just one speech for PM Modi to bring it to a grinding halt. By exposing them, PM Modi has now proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Anti-CAA protests were not a spontaneous, public movement.