NEW DELHI: Days after Delhi Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh sparked a furore by reportedly referring to women councillors as ‘bhed-bakri’ (sheep and goats) during proceedings of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House, AAP has once again trained the guns on the BJP for insulting women. AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday shared a clip from the session in which the Mayor can be heard using the words in the Assembly, saying it reflects “the BJP’s true mindset.”
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Bharadwaj said, “CM Rekha Gupta recently told the Delhi Assembly that she is unfairly targeted and that memes are made about her because she happens to be a woman Chief Minister. On the very day she was invoking her womanhood, her party’s Mayor, Raja Iqbal Singh, addressed Delhi’s elected women councillors as ‘sheep and goats’ in the MCD House in front of everyone. This despite his duty to run the House as a non-political, neutral guardian.”
When AAP councillors took exception to this, Bharadwaj added, the BJP and the Mayor denied that he ever used the words ‘bhed-bakri.’ But AAP has video evidence to prove otherwise, he noted. He further lashed out at the BJP leadership for “shamelessly” denying and claiming that AAP had just made it up.
Sharing the video, Bharadwaj said, “Now, what does CM Rekha Gupta have to say about her own party’s Mayor?”
He further demanded that BJP state chief Virendra Sachdeva make his stance on the matter clear. BJP Councillor Rajpal Singh, however, played down the row, expressing, “Aam Aadmi Party leaders tend to make an issue out of nothing.”
He further clarified, “This incident happened during the MCD House meeting conducted last week, when the Mayor asked Congress leaders Ariba Khan and Naziya Danish not to create a ruckus so that the House could proceed smoothly.” Rajpal defended the Mayor, saying there was no malicious intention behind his remark and that he has already apologised for it.