A day after he was released from the Tihar Jail on bail, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad offered to give his blood and also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give his, so that it can be decided who loves the country more.
Quoting from Rahat Indori's poem, Kisi ke baap ka Hindustan thodi hai, which went viral during the CAA protests and which talks about everyone’s blood being mixed in the soil of India, Azad said: “I am willing to give my blood for you to check. The prime minister recognises people from the clothes. I am asking him to give his blood. Let him check, whose blood as more Indian-ness. People who have lived here for centuries and who have fought for the freedom of the country... he is raising a question on their identity.”
He was speaking at a press conference at the Indian Women’s Press Corps.
Azad had been arrested in connection with violence during the anti-CAA protests in Old Delhi, and is out on bail. He went to Jama Masjid soon after he was released from Tihar. The terms of his bail include that he must leave Delhi. “I went to Jama Masjid to oppose NRC, CAA and NPR because it a historic spot,’’ he said. “During the time of Partition, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad stood there and asked the Muslims of India not to go to Pakistan. The country is yours, he said. The Partition will only harm you. I felt, by imposing the NRC, CAA, another attempt is being made to divide the country on the basis of religion,” Azad said.
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“I want the world to hear. The police, too. Reading out the preamble of the Constitution, is what I was sent to jail for. I shall read it every day. This Constitution gives me the right to live. I am from a depressed class of society. Even the clothes on my back are because of the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar. I can’t go against it.”
Azad, who was due to launch his political career, however, refused to comment on his ambitions. “I will go back home and try and awaken people about this Act. People have been arrested [in UP]. Our legal team will fight for their freedom.” While he refused to be drawn into any political debate, he said: “I felt if I don’t come out now, I will be embarrassed in front of my next generation who will ask that when the country was being divided, when the roots of the country were being shaken, what were you doing?’’
Talking about the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protest, where thousands of women, mostly mothers, are taking part, he said, “They are sitting there with their children because they are forced to do so. Our prime minister can’t hear them. I live in the village. How will he hear us, if he can’t hear these women? And he talks about mann ki baat!”