On Anti-Citizenship Protests, JDU's Prashant Kishor Has Stern Message For Congress

Day after interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi issued a video message to the nation amidst citizenship showdown between protesters and the authorities across India, JDU’ national vice-president Prashant Kishor slammed the Grand Old Party for not doing enough and adopting a lax approach. “Congress is not on streets and its top leadership has been largely absent in the citizens’ fight against CAA-NRC The least party could do it to make ALL Congress CMs join other CMs who have said that they will not allow NRC in their states. Or else these statements means nothing,” Kishor said on Twitter. The JDU senior leader’s tweet was a direct attack against the Congress leadership.

Kishor has been tweeting against the Citizenship Act and the NRC consistently. On Thursday, Kishore had tweeted against the NRC. “The argument that no nationwide #NRC has been ANNOUNCED is not convincing as it is not the SAME as clearly stating that there will be No #NRC,” he had said on the micro-blogging site.

Congress is not on streets and its top leadership has been largely absent in the citizens’ fight against CAA-NRC

The least party could do it to make ALL Congress CMs join other CMs who have said that they will not allow NRC in their states. Or else these statements means nothing https://t.co/EWJLyc3kgR

— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) December 21, 2019

This is not the first time that Kishor has asked the non-BJP Chief Ministers to cone together and present a united Opposition against the Citizenship law. On December 13 when President Kovind gave accent to the legislation making it a law, Kishor had tweeted - “The majority prevailed in Parliament. Now beyond judiciary, the task of saving the soul of India is on 16 Non-BJP CMs as it is the states who have to operationalise these acts. 3 CMs (Punjab/Kerala/WB) have said NO to #CAB and #NRC. Time for others to make their stand clear.”

On Friday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had also said that he won’t implement NRC the state. . This was the first time ever that a major ally of the NDA has voiced the dissent over Modi government’s citizenship law. Earlier on December 14, during a meeting with close confidant Prashant Kishore, Nitish Kumar had reportedly assured him of taking a stand against the Modi government.

Meanwhile, thousands of RJD supporters fanned out across Bihar on Saturday, disrupting rail and road traffic while trying to enforce a statewide shutdown in protest against the new citizenship law and the proposed NRC. In the state capital, hundreds of party supporters - among whom children could also be seen - stormed railway stations and bus stands carrying sticks and party flags but they were chased away by police personnel. In Nawada, bandh supporters staged a demonstration on national highway 31 where they burnt tires on the road causing disruption in the movement of vehicles while agitators protested at Zero Mile Chowk in Muzaffarpur.