'Go to Pakistan since you feel suffocated in India': BJP's Satish Gautam tells activist Sumaiya Rana after her speech at Aligarh anti-CAA rally

Aligarh: In a provocative remark, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Satish Gautam said social activist Sumaiya Rana, daughter of leading Urdu poet Munawwar Rana, should “go to Pakistan” since she is feeling suffocated in today’s India. The Aligarh MP made the remark while talking to reporters on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_7799671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of protests against the CA, NRC in Aligarh. PTI[/caption] Sumaiya, while addressing a gathering of anti-CAA protesters in Aligarh on Saturday, accused the Uttar Pradesh police of using “coercive measures” to crush protests against the amended citizenship law and said such measures are “very suffocating” for the people. “Sumaiya should go to Pakistan since she is feeling suffocated in today’s India,” Gautam said. He also warned of action against students who have been protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) since 16 December last year. “There are about 150-odd students who are still holding protests at AMU, while the rest have returned to classes. They have all been identified by the police now and rest assured they will not be in the campus from the next academic year,” the BJP MP said. Despite pressure from local authorities, Sumaiya went ahead and addressed women protesters, who have been staging a sit-in against the CAA for the past 12 days, at the Eidgah complex in Aligarh. Accompanied by some student leaders from the AMU, the social activist had told the protestors, “We are holding all-women protests which are completely peaceful and which is our democratic right, but as we have seen in Lucknow, the UP police is using coercive measures to crush our protests.” In Lucknow, she said, women’s washrooms were locked to break the protest. “Such oppressive methods are very suffocating for the people,” she added. On Sunday, Sumaiya and some AMU student leaders tried to enter the protest site but were denied permission by police. Senior Superintendent of Police, Aligarh, Akash Kulhari on Monday said it is apprehended that some antisocial elements “might try to take advantage of the ongoing protest at the Eidgah”.