Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday gave a sign of the opening of a window of dialogue on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act with the protesters at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.
Taking to the twitter, Minister said that the dialogue should be in a structured form and the Narendra Modi government is ready to communicate with them and clear their doubts on the Act.
Shaheen Bagh has been the epicenter of anti-CAA protests as many protesters staged a sit-in on December 15, the day when the police took violent action on the protesting students of Jamia Millia Islamia students.
Minister had given an indication of initiating talks earlier as well on the issue during a debate on a news channel India TV. On the question of the central government not trying to communicate with the anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh, Prasad replied that the protesters said there will be no dialogue until the CAA is rolled back. If the protesters want to discuss CAA then there should be a structured request from Shaheen Bagh.
The government has not been addressing the protesters in the area and the remarks by Law Minister are the first in the direction.
However, the BJP leaders have been taking up the issue rapidly during their campaigns for the Delhi Assembly election.
In the sequence, some controversial remarks on the place were also made by the BJP leaders including Union State Minister Anurag Thakur, BJP MP from West Delhi Parversh Verma and BJP candidate from West Delhi in the Delhi Assembly polls from Model Town area Kapil Mishra.
Taking action on the trio, the Election Commission had banned them from campaigning for the Delhi polls.
Home Minister Amit Shah has also been taking up the Shahen Bagh issue in his rallies at Delhi ahead of the Assembly election.
He has been vocal in launching an attack on the protesters at the Shaheen Bagh, alleging it to be orchestrated by the ruling AAP government.