Minister Anurag Thakur backs 'goli maaro saalon ko' slogan

New Delhi: Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, who was in Delhi on Monday for a rally ahead of the February 8 Assembly elections, was caught on camera making inflammatory comments in Rithala.

Seen clapping his hands over his head, Thakur chanted, "Desh ke gaddaron ko (traitors of the country)...", with the crowd hitting back with "goli maaro saalon ko (shoot them all)".

Thakur and Giriraj Singh were later joined by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the same venue.

The slogan, frequently raised by right-wing groups and also heard during the January 5 attack on students and teachers at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, surfaced again in the election rally.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has triggered another controversy. Tharoor has categorically said it would be a complete victory for Pakistan's founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, if the CAA leads to implementation of the NPR and the NRC.

He said Jinnah's idea of a country was already winning in India with the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) coming into effect, but asserted that there was still a choice available.

Terming the Citizenship Amendment Act as "unconstitutional", former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha on Monday said the "government with a 56-inch chest" will have to shed its arrogance on the new citizenship law and bend before the people who have been protesting against the law in large numbers across the country.

The former BJP leader also slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks that the government would not take the CAA back and people could do whatever they can.

"The Citizenship Amendment Act is against the basic structure of the Constitution. There was no need for this kind of amendment in the citizenship law as the Government of India already had the power to grant citizenship to anyone.

This law cannot be implemented," Sinha said. The Supreme Court on Monday sought response of the Centre and Assam government on a plea alleging exclusion of around 2000 transgenders in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

Indian-Americans protested in 30 US cities against CAA on Republic Day.

In the American capital of Washington DC, more than 500 Indian Americans marched from a park near the White House to the Gandhi Statue in front of the Indian Embassy.

Popular Front of India, a group that has been accused of funding protests against the amended citizenship law in UP, on Monday countered a fresh attempt by the central government's Enforcement Directorate to link the organisation to the anti-CAA protests in parts of the country.

An unsigned note by the ED that found its way to social media had alleged the PFI had mobilised money to fund the protests and the ED had tracked bank accounts to back this charge.

The ED note had also named some senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal and Dushyant Dave as recipients of the funds.

ED officials, requesting anonymity, had insisted that they did submit the note to the Home Ministry that is examining a request by UP Police to ban the group under India's anti-terror law.