Let Azadi-seekers leave country: Gujarat Deputy CM

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said on Thursday that those agitating against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and seeking "Azadi" should be allowed to leave the country if they wanted freedom.

He was speaking at a programme here on the occasion of birth anniversary of nationalist icon Subhas Chandra Bose.

"The country got freedom in 1947, but you see some people gather and shout slogans of `azadi'. From whom you want freedom? Do you want freedom from your parents? You want freedom from your husband? I don't understand," Patel said.

"India is a free country and the biggest democracy of the world," he said.

"If they want freedom from India, we should request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open the borders and they can go wherever they want," the BJP leader added.

He also alleged that the police was attacked in a pre-planned manner in Ahmedabad during the anti-CAA protest.

"In the city, if you want a bag of stones, it is difficult to get, but truckload of stones were stored on the terrace, with which our policemen and policewomen were attacked," the deputy CM claimed.

"But they forgot that this is not Kashmir, you are living in Gujarat," Patel added.

"We have taken all the steps that could be taken against those involved. Some people have not been able to sleep for two months due to the measures we took," Patel said.

"We have the IIM-A here, where just 15 students gather and protest against CAA by standing outside the institute. I don't know from which states they have come here to study. I don't have any problem with them as they are only students, but I have a problem with their parents who have not trained them properly," he said.

The CAA does not take away anybody's citizenship, he said.

"In Delhi's Shahin Bag, members of only one community are on dharna, I need not say anything more. This has exposed who are feeling affected by the law," Patel said.

"(Hyderabad MP Asaduddin) Owaisi is speaking against the act. This community is hoping that as Muslims ruled over India for 800 years, if these so-called secular, leftists continue to rule India then at some point they can come back to power in this country," Patel said.

"The Indian Constitution and democracy will survive as long as good people are in majority. You have to understand what I mean by good people," he added.

"Or else, you are seeing what is happening in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of people are getting killed, reports of blasts are coming every day," Patel said.