Freelance protestor-turned-politician-turned-freelance protestor, Shehla Rashid took to Twitter to express her fulminations about the anti-CAA protests being hijacked of its Muslim identity by the liberals. In a self-righteous rant on the social networking website, Rashid lambasted the ‘liberals’ for opposing the Muslim identity politics accompanying the anti-CAA protest and asserted that the protest is being led and sustained by Muslims and that Muslims are paying with their blood for that.
Please don’t say that you are doing it to save the ‘idea of India’. The idea of India was being murdered mercilessly in Kashmir 5 months ago. Most of you were either silent or endorsed that rampage. Now that there is a mass movement, why do you want to appropriate it?
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) December 30, 2019
In a series of tweets, Rashid censured the ‘liberals’ saying that they are doing nothing to save the ‘idea of India’. “The idea of India was being murdered mercilessly in Kashmir 5 months ago. Most of you were either silent or endorsed that rampage. Now that there is a mass movement, why do you want to appropriate it?” she tweeted.
Acknowledging that the majority of the country concurs with the government on the enactment of the CAA, Shehla Rashid suggested the ‘liberals’ are appropriating the “Muslim protest against the CAA” to mobilize “the silent majority which is mocking about the CAA in cafes, malls and online”.
The mammoth Indian state is turning its machinery fully against Muslims, trampling upon them socially, culturally, economically and physically. If you want to be an ally, let the community lead and don’t call their concerns ‘extremist thoughts’ or ‘conspiracy theories’.
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) December 30, 2019
Shehla continued her fear-mongering against the Indian government stating that the “Indian state is turning its machinery against Muslims, trampling upon them socially, culturally, economically and physically”. With the aim of trying to shield the concomitant Islamism that has been a central feature of the anti-CAA protests, Shehla advised the liberals to allow the Muslim community to lead the protests and condone their ‘extremist thoughts’ or ‘conspiracy theories’.
However, Shehla’s protestations did not sit well with the liberals who were visibly perturbed seeing their meticulously cultivated pretense debunked by the former JNU student. Many scrambled to denounce the assertions made by Shehla so as to salvage the diminishing credibility of the anti-CAA protests and not because they oppose it being a Muslim protest.
Rubbishing Shehla’s contentions, one Ifra Jan claimed that Shehla is doing great disservice to those who are standing for liberal values by relegating an all-India movement as only-Muslim movement.
This is cringe level politics. NRC is anti-poor, anti women, anti Constitutional, & anti Muslim + Jew. If you’re going to make it only about Muslims, you do a disservice to those who are standing for liberty. Don’t hijack an all India movement only to help BJP with polarization. https://t.co/XyDXsJMHTu
— Ifra Jan (@IfraJan_) December 30, 2019
Another self-proclaimed liberal, Seema Goswami too criticized Shehla Rashid for reducing the pan-India movement to a Hindu-Muslim issue. Realizing that Shehla’s deranged rant has actually exposed the liberals’ diligently developed charade, Goswami sententiously declared that the anti-CAA protest is about everyone and that “no amount of self-righteous bloviating will change that”.
This thread…What a way to reduce a pan-Indian movement to a Hindu-Muslim issue! Sorry @Shehla_Rashid this is not abt Muslims alone – it is abt every Indian who cares about our constitution. We all have a stake in this. And no amount of self-righteous bloviating will change that https://t.co/ZEKeV20xJY
— Seema Goswami (@seemagoswami) December 30, 2019
The anti-CAA protests that have erupted in several parts of India have seen participation, mostly from Muslims, who are allegedly misled by the opposition politicians with their extensive disinformation campaign against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The CAA legislated by the central government intends to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities-Jains, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddishts from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
