‘I Stand With Shaheen Bagh’: AAP’s Manish Sisodia Extends Support To Anti-CAA Protests

Ahead of Assembly elections, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday came out in support of the women protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). Speaking at the News18 conclave, Sisodia said that he stands with the people of Shaheen Bagh, who have been protesting against the “unconstitutional” law for the last 40 days.

The remarks of Sisodia extending support to the anti-CAA protest came hours after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed the contentious Citizenship Act an “issue” and said that his party does not support the divisive NRC. Kejriwal said that his party had opposed the CAA in Parliament and he himself spoke against it in his rallies.

Until today, the AAP had been relatively silent on the iconic Shaheen Bagh protest in spite of voting against the CAA in Parliament. No big leader from the AAP had visited the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, which led to criticism from the other Opposition parties. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said that Kejriwal's "subdued" response to the issues (CAA, Jamia, JNU violence) "smacks of opportunism".

"He (Kejriwal) did not show up in Jamia (Millia Islamia), he did not show up in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). His statements were not frequent enough, strong enough and open enough,” Sibal had told news agency PTI.

According to experts, the AAP didn’t want to lose Hindu voters and was maintaining silence on the issues. However, Muslims in Delhi also account for nearly 13 per cent of the voters and not speaking up for them could have hurt AAP in the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections.