Govt ready to talk to Shaheen Bagh protesters but in a structured form: Law minister Prasad
New Delhi: Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said the government is ready to talk to the protesters at Shaheen Bagh to clear their doubts over the amended Citizenship law, but it should be in a "structured form".
This is perhaps for the first time a Union minister has expressed willingness to communicate with the Shaheen Bagh protestors who have been staging a sit-in since last 40 days to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act.
"Government is ready to talk to protestors of Shaheen Bagh but then it should be in a structured form and the @narendramodi govt is ready to communicate with them and clear all their doubts they have against CAA," he wrote on Twitter.
Prasad also shared a link of a TV debate in which he participated. In the debate, a person associated with the protest asked the minister why the central government was not trying to communicate with the protesters at Shaheen Bagh.
Prasad said it was a "good thing" that people were protesting for days but some people were heard saying on television that there would not be dialogue until the CAA was rolled back.
"If you want a government representative to talk, then there should be a structured request from Shaheen Bagh which says all the people there want to talk on the subject," Prasad said.
He made it clear that Shaheen Bagh was not the place to hold talks. "What if someone goes there and is mistreated," he said. The Shaheen Bagh protest site in southeast Delhi is at the centrestage of BJP's polls campaign.
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PM Modi is controlled by Donald Trump, wants to do the same in TN: Rahul Gandhi
Ranipet (Tamil Nadu) (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was being "controlled" by US President Donald Trump and that the PM wanted the AIADMK to capture power so that he could control Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
Also, he claimed that the prime minister "handed out our energy security and gave away our data, besides selling our farmers and small and medium industries."
"You saw yesterday (in Parliament) the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi completely lacking confidence," Rahul said on the delimitation bill.
"He (PM) could not even face the opposition. He was sitting sideways. And the reason is, he is controlled by the United States. He signed the India-US deal that sold our country out," Rahul said while addressing an election rally here.
He further said, "Today, if Donald Trump tells Modi to jump, Modi jumps. If Donald Trump tells Modi to lie down, Modi lies down. Why? Because Donald Trump controls Modi fully. How does he control him? He controls through the Epstein files. He controls him because he knows Modi's financial systems and understands Modi's link with Adani," the Congress leader alleged.
Just as he was being controlled by Trump, Modi wanted to do the same to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. "That is why he wants to put AIADMK in power in TN," Rahul said.
The Union government had rejected references to PM Modi in the latest Jeffrey Epstein case files, describing it as “little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal that deserves to be dismissed with the utmost contempt”.
