NEW DELHI: The BJP felicitated eight members of its youth wing after they were granted bail in a case of vandalism outside CM Arvind Kejriwal’s house last month, prompting a backlash from the ruling AAP.
Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta had organised an event at the party office on Thursday where he felicitated eight members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Gupta had also tweeted a picture of the felicitation ceremony. “Welcomed these young revolutionaries in the state office today... Each of our workers will always keep up the fight against anti-Hindu forces,” he had said.
On March 30, BJYM national president Tejasvi Surya had led a protest, which the party claimed, was against Kejriwal’s ‘anti-Hindu’ remarks regarding the movie, the Kashmir Files. Some of the protesters had damaged a boom barrier and CCTV installed near the gate of the chief minister’s residence in North Delhi’s Civil Lines. The protesters had also allegedly threw paint on the main gate.
The Delhi High Court had earlier this week granted bail to the eight BJP youth wing workers in the case.
At a press conference, AAP MLA and party spokesperson Atishi accused the BJP of promoting ‘gunda raj’ in the country. “By honouring the goons who attacked CM house, the BJP is promoting Gunda Raj in the country. It no longer stands for Bharatiya Janata Party but ‘Bharatiya Gunda Party’ that honours offenders.” The attack on CM House was not an isolated incident as there have been a number of such acts of violence in the past, she asserted.
“Several days after this attack, BJP goons vandalised an underground reservoir in Sonia Vihar. In 2020, the Delhi BJP state president accompanied the same goons to charge at the DJB office. They vandalised the office, broke windows and pots, and ransacked the entire premises,” she said. “While BJP makes a list of hooligans in their party, the AAP makes a list of learned people,” the Kalkaji legislator said to highlight the differences between the two parties.
Responding to Atishi’s charges, BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that his AAP counterpart was affiliated with the party which was accused of beating up former chief secretary Anshu Prakash. Kapoor was referring to the alleged assault on Prakash during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19, 2018. In March this year, Prakash had told a court that Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia were the “kingpins” of the conspiracy that resulted in his assault.“These people (BJYM workers) were protesting against the CM for insulting the Kashmiri Pandits. They did not indulge in violence against the CM nor did they hurt him but Kejriwal had put pressure to get them arrested,” he claimed.
Result of Punjab win?
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had claimed that the attack was after the AAP’s victory in Punjab which left the BJP flustered. “As it could not defeat Kejriwal, the BJP now wants to kill him. The attack shows that the BJP, with the help of police, wants to kill Kejriwal,” he had told the media.