Owaisi hints at 'jail bharo' over slapping of cases on Modi

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday condemned the sedition charges against a school headmistress and a student's mother in Karnataka for their alleged involvement in staging a drama on CAA and NRC, and hinted at a jail bharo programme over filing of cases against Prime Minister Narendra Modi critics.

"If somebody speaks against Modi, sedition cases are filed. I want to tell Narendra Modi that time will come wherein we will decide on when and what time to launch the jail bharo programme.

"All the jails in India can keep only three lakh people. If all of us come on roads, these prisons in India are inadequate to keep all of us. You (either) keep us in jails or shoot us with bullets," Owaisi said while referring to the incident in Bidar in Karnataka.

He was speaking at a Women's Protest Conference against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) organised by the United Muslim Action Committee.

The Karnataka Police slapped a sedition case against the school on January 26, based on a complaint from social worker Neelesh Rakshyal.

The complainant alleged that the school's authorities 'used' the students to perform a drama where they "abused" Modi in the context of the CAA and the NRC.

He said the ongoing struggle against CAA, NRC and NPR is a long-drawn battle and people should be prepared for it.

"The forces which we are fighting against are full of RSS and Hindutva ideology since childhood," the Hyderabad MP said adding there is a need to "save" the country from "Hindutva ideology."