A video that has now gone viral on social media shows a shopkeeper confiding on camera that the Shaheen Bagh protests are sponsored. It has raised several questions.
Since the CAA was passed by the Parliament, the group of protesters mostly comprising of Mulsim women blocked a road in Kalindi Kunj area that connects Faridabad- New Delhi- Noida. This has led to traffic inconvenience, increasing travel time from 20 minutes to several hours.
Shaheen Bagh protest is sponsored… सारा कांग्रेस का खेल है… pic.twitter.com/JOKIO2qK7P
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 15, 2020
The viral video was shared on Twitter yesterday by Amit Malviya, the BJP’s IT cell head. The man in the video appeared to be the shopkeeper. He claimed that the protesting women are paid between ₹500 and ₹700 on a daily basis. He added that the protestors work in shifts so that the crowd looks huge at all times of the day.
According to him, the women are incentivised to dedicate their free time to the protests. He asserted that these sponsored protests are carried out near Batla House and Kalindi Kunj. He also added that the protestors are provided with food, rest and shift-based rotational ‘duty hours’ in a well-organised manner. He was seen telling that this has been going on since the ‘protests’ began and this is seen as a mode of income for the locals.
In a phone interview with Times Now, Amit Malviya alleged that the Congress ecosystem is behind these “sponsored” protests. He based his argument on the fact that several Congress leaders such as Mani Shankar Aiyar used the platform of Shaheen Bagh protests to speak against the CAA. According to Malviya, the opportunity to speak at these protests was the result of Congress’ sponsorship.
He questioned the motives behind these protests as the CAA has no impact on any Indian citizen, be it in Shaheen bagh or anywhere else. He asked whether the Indian Muslim hardliners have some kind of veto power in the country that they will reject democratic legislations brought via the parliament.
He questioned whether Muslim hardliners will decide the fate of Hindus and Sikhs coming to India, just like they do in Pakistan. Lastly, he alleged that these organized protests are part of the larger narrative built by Congress in the wake of the Delhi 2020 State Assembly elections.
Read: Congress-supporting Bharatiya Kisan Union leaders join the anti-CAA protests at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh
Even though OpIndia could not verify the authenticity of the video, it certainly raises doubts about the credibility of the organized Shaheen Bagh protests. The video and the constant anti-Hindu narrative emerging from the anti-CAA protests have left us questioning the real intentions behind these protests
