Kannan Gopinathan Claims Even Some ‘RSS People’ Opposed to CAA

The line of thought among the RSS people was “just support it (CAA)“ because the “government is their baby”.’

File photo of Kannan Gopinath. 

(Photo altered by The Quint)

Bureaucrat-turned-activist Kannan Gopinathan on Tuesday, 28 January 2020 said even some "RSS people" are convinced the Citizenship Amendment Act is a bad law but are keeping quiet as the NDA government at the Centre is their own baby.

Speaking in Panaji, he further said the Narendra Modi government was behaving like a "drunken teenager" which needs to be questioned or else it will end up destroying homes.

“I was detained twice in UP, kept the whole day, because they (government) do not want the questioning (of CAA). I have met so many RSS people, they also understand this...if you have this conversation, they also understand the government has done something (wrong) and they have been asked to support it.” 

Bureaucrat-turned-activist Kannan Gopinathan

He said the line of thought among these RSS people (he met) was "just support it (CAA)" as they don't want an altercation because the "government is their baby".

‘They (Parliamentarians) Would Not Have Known What Was Passed’

At the time, he had claimed the people of Jammu and Kashmir were being denied freedom of expression following the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre.

“He (government) is not a normal baby, he is a drunken teenager. He should be asked questions because when he starts destroying, he does not destroy somebody else’s home but your own home.”

Bureaucrat-turned-activist Kannan Gopinathan

He also hit out at those who have been claiming that the people protesting against the CAA are unaware of the law and have not even read it.

Gopinathan claimed if one had asked supportive MPs about the CAA on the day it was passed in Parliament, several of them would not have been able to speak on it as "they would not have known what was passed because they were not given time (to go through the bill)".

'Everything Is a Surgical Strike'

He said, earlier, such legislation was passed after several rounds of consultation but "now, by night, it becomes an Act", adding (now) "everything is a surgical strike".

Gopinathan, in a possible reference to the National Register of Citizens exercise carried out in Assam, also claimed: “thousands of people are in detention centres”.

"It is your fundamental right to peacefully assemble without arms, Article 19 (1) (D) (of the Constitution)," he said at a function organised by a group opposed to CAA.

Gopinathan said people "always felt they were in a democracy" because they never tried to fly, when in reality "you are in a cage".

‘We Have to Ask Ourselves Where Are We Going’

"The moment you want to fly you realise you are in a cage," he said, adding that "we have to question, we have to ask ourselves where are we going".

“When you don’t allow a person to speak against incorrect legislation, then what is democracy? What is freedom of expression?” 

Bureaucrat-turned-activist Kannan Gopinathan

Gopinathan, a 2012 batch AGMUT cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, was the secretary, Power Department of the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli when he resigned on 21 August last year.