Tejasvi Surya skewered over "Puncture-Wallahs" comment on Citizenship law protests

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Dec 23, 2019: BJP MP Tejasvi Surya has been criticized for commenting at a rally in support of the citizenship law that only "puncture-wallahs" and the illiterate were opposing it. The young Bengaluru South MP made the remarks to loud cheers at the Town Hall in Bengaluru on Sunday, NDTV reported.

 

"Those working in Bangalore’s IT and BT sectors - lawyers, IT professionals - those contributing to development. Regular daily workers, rickshaw drivers... are all here standing together at this rally. But these illiterates - if you cut open their chest, you can’t find two words inside them - just like puncturewalas - are the only ones opposing this law," Tejasvi Surya said at the rally in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

The 29-year-old was accused by critics of using a slur for Muslims and the underprivileged.

Tejasvi Surya, who debuted in the national election earlier this year and won, also said at the rally: "This is a new India we are creating. This is India which will have a $5 trillion economy. Your namby-pamby secularism that you people have built so far will not work anymore."

Protests have raged across India against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which, for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principals of the constitution.