Ex-Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Saturday announced a nationwide ‘Gandhi Shanti Yatra'(tour) to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.

The campaign is organised under the banner of his organisation Rashtra Manch, Sinha told reporters in Mumbai.

Former MP Shatrughan Sinha and former Gujarat chief minister Suresh Mehta were also present on this occasion.

The Yatra will start at Mumbai’s Apollo Bunder on January 9, pass through Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Harayana and Delhi and cover a distance of over 3,000 km and culminate at the Raj Ghat in Delhi on January 30, Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, Sinha said.

Accusing BJP-ruled states for using violence to suppress peaceful protests against the CAA and NRC, he blamed the government for disturbing peace across the country.

Mehta appealed people and organisations in Gujarat to take the lead to make the campaign a success.

The CAA was unconstitutional, discriminated against a community and was meant to humiliate it, the former Gujarat CM said, demanding that it be scrapped and the NRC and NPR should not be implemented.

Calling the police crackdown on anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh “state-sponsored terrorism”, he said the Yatra was going there specifically to protest against the police’s high-handedness.

“Dekhna hai zor kitna baju-e kaatil mein hai (We want to see how powerful is the oppressor),” he said.

Other organisations should also take out similar Yatras converging at the Raj Ghat at 11 AM on January 30, he said.

Actor-turned politician and former BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha said, “We have suffered so much that now we are embarking on a ‘safar’ (journey).
“We are against the government’s policies, we are standing up for the Constitution,” he said.

The CAA provides citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries, but excludes Muslims, Shatrughan Sinha said, adding that it “seems to be a ploy to distract attention from the issues the country is facing.”

The CAA would be as bad as demonetisation, he said, asking what was the need to bring in such a law without consulting experts or even senior leaders of the BJP and opposition.

Earlier, Sinha on 28th December, 2019, referred to two people “Duryodhan” and “Dushashan” from Mahabharat to target the BJP over the Citizenship Amendment Act, that has plunged the nation in deep chaos with violent protests erupting across the country.

In an indirect reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s “tukde tukde” jibe for the Congress, the former BJP leader tweeted: “The most dangerous tukde tukde gang in India consists of only two people, Duryodhan and Dusshashan. They are both in BJP. Beware of them (sic).”

Earlier, in a tweet on December 20, the former minister had once again targeted Home Minister Amit Shah over NRC.

“Home minister and his ministry is repeatedly saying that Indian ‘citizens’ including Muslims have nothing to fear from NRC. That is the catch. Who will decide who is a ‘citizen’ in the first place? The govt obviously, (sic)” he had tweeted.

The Citizenship (Amendment)Act seeks to provide citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and have arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act has triggered protests across the country after it was passed by Parliament on December 11.