Nation watched in horror at BJP-orchestrated assault on JNU coming so soon after what happened in Jamia, BHU, Allahabad University, AMU and other institutions of higher learning, said Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Monday slamming the BJP government over the attacks on students.

Sonia Gandhi’s remarks came after a Congress-led opposition meeting which was attended by 19 other political parties across the country at Parliament Annexe, Delhi.

The meeting was called to corner the government on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizen (NRC) which have triggered nationwide protests.

Launching an attack on the PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Congress president said, “Prime Minister and Home Minister have misled the people. They have contradicted their own statements of only weeks ago and continue with their provocative statements while remaining insensitive to the state suppression and violence that is increasingly becoming commonplace.”

She alleged PM Modi and Amit Shah of diverting the nation’s attention from issues of the collapse of economy, and slowing growth by raising one divisive and polarising issue after another.

“Government has let loose reign of oppression, spreading hatred and trying to divide our people along sectarian lines. There is unprecedented turmoil, Constitution is being undermined and instruments of governance being misused,” she added.

She further termed the protests against the CAA and NRC to be the result of widespread anger and frustration among the people against the BJP government. “There have been nationwide protests by youth supported by citizens. The immediate cause is CAA and NRC, but they reflect widespread frustration and pent up anger, which is now out in the open,” she said.

“The response of the police in UP and Delhi has been shockingly partisan and brutal,” she added.

Claiming the NPR to be the first step for the nationwide implementation of NRC, Sonia Gandhi said, “The NRC seems to have back-fired in Assam. The Modi-Shah government is now focusing on the NPR exercise that is scheduled to begin in a few months. Contrary to the assertions of the Home Minister, it is clear that this is being done to lead to a nation-wide NRC.”

However, in the meeting, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, and Bahujan Samaj Party were the notable absentees.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and BSP chief Mayawati had earlier declared that they won’t attend the meeting.

Mamata dropped out the meeting over the clashes between her party workers and those of the left and the Congress during last week’s trade union strike. Earlier, Mamata said that she mooted the idea of the meet and due to the clash between her party and Left, she has boycotted the meeting. She also alleged the Congress and Left of ‘playing dirty politics in West Bengal’.

Read: Mayawati, Mamata to skip Oppn meet called by Sonia Gandhi; AAP likely to give a miss

Mayawati said her party will not attend the meeting, saying it will “demoralise” her party workers in Rajasthan, where the Congress has caused defections of six MLAs in her party.

She took Twitter to inform her absenteeism from the meet due to the Congress ‘betrayal’ in Rajasthan.

“Despite giving outside support to Congress in Rajasthan, they made the BSP MLAs join their party for the second time, which is betrayal,” she said in a tweet.

“Thus participating in the opposition meeting called by Congress will be demoralising for the BSP. So BSP will not attend the meeting,” she added in another tweet.

However, Mayawati had made it clear that her party was opposed to the CAA and demanded the government withdraw it.

The opposition meeting has come two days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday in which the Congress interim president had termed the CAA as ‘discriminatory and divisive’ law.

“The sinister purpose of the law is clear to every patriotic, tolerant and secular Indian that it is to divide the Indian people on religious lines,” she had said.

Read: Sonia Gandhi hits out at government, says CAA intends to divide on religious lines

During the CWC, she had urged all parties to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of India against CAA and NRC.