The anti-CAA protests had everything — from starting as a ‘student’ movement to finally showing its true colours as an Islamist movement with the involvement of SIMI, PFI and even Pakistan seeking to destabilise India under the garb of anti-CAA protests. Another modus operandi widely seen during the anti-CAA was the use of minors as the protestors plundered public property through them. However, the UP Police is no mood to let things slide by as it has charged 33 arrested accused of provoking children to pelt stones during clashes.
The SIT probing the anti-CAA violence in Uttar Pradesh has charged 33 arrested people for provoking children to pelt stones during the protests here against the amended law.
According to an official, an additional charge under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, has been imposed on 33 people who were arrested earlier for allegedly indulging in violence during the clashes that broke out on 20 December last year during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Law. The section was added after receiving permission from Chief Judicial Magistrate Ravikant Yadav. The accused were found to have provoked minors to throw stones during the clashes with police, the official claimed, adding that all the 33 accused were earlier charged under various sections of the IPC.
The state had witnessed unprecedented violence during the peak of anti-CAA protests as the mob moved to desecrate public property. The UP government came down heavily on the rioters and forced them to compensate for the loss. Recently, the residents of violence-hit areas of Bulandshahr handed over a demand draft of Rs 6.27 Lakh to the district magistrate along with an assurance that such incident will not happen again in future. Senior officials called it a “voluntary act of repentance”. Additionally, the UP government has served a notice to 498 people for causing damage to public property and will soon move to seize their property. More than 320 cases have been registered so far, 1113 people have been arrested and 5558 taken in preventive custody, Uttar Pradesh director general of police OP Singh had said.
It has also been witnessed that anti-national elements and troublemakers shamelessly involved kids in their protests elsewhere as well. Protests across the nation galvanized after the violent clashes which erupted in Delhi’s Jamia Milia Islamia University were faced by a severe crackdown by the Delhi police. Of course, according to protesters, violence perpetrated by them is justified, while the Police acting severely is an outright infringement of their constitutional rights. In this line, protesters gathered outside Jamia Milia yesterday. To top it all, this time, they had their kids accompanying them. Kids of the age who cannot pronounce the alphabets were also seen in the protests, courtesy, their coward parents.
There have been numerous instances over the past few days, where it has been seen that kids are being used as political weapons by subhuman parents. Newslaundry earlier had posted a few pictures on Instagram of the protestors at Jamia Milia along with their parents. The said post has numerous comments lambasting such a show of absurd theatre in the name of protests. Many expected the parents and relatives of these kids to develop a conscience, a proposition I see no hope in. Why should kids be made a part of a show of collective political illiteracy on the part of the adults? Because, going by numerous reports, and observing the anti-CAA crowd, it can be said with a sense of confidence that none of these protestors know how many pages the Act contains, leave alone the content in them. When such ignorance is being portrayed unabashedly by adults, why are kids, who are not even aware of why they are at the protest site, being made cannon fodder?
The use of kids is a part of a sinister ploy — cops can’t take action if kids involved, and even if they do, the protesters get to blame cops and entangle them in human rights issues.