NEW DELHI: The tussle between the AAP and the BJP over the political affiliation of one of the 'masterminds' of the Jahangirpuri clashes intensified on Tuesday, with the ruling party in Delhi now calling the accused a BJP leader.
In a press conference here, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that Md Ansar, one of the 'masterminds' of the April 16 clashes, was an "active BJP leader". The party also shared on social media some pictures in which Ansar is seen wearing a saffron cap and the BJP's scarf, and seems to be attending some political events with other leaders of the BJP.
"With these pictures, the dirty and ugly face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stands exposed before the country. These pictures make it clear that the riots in Jahangirpuri had been engineered by the BJP," Bharadwaj said.
He claimed that the BJP has been behind all the incidents of communal violence that took place in different parts of the country during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions recently. "The BJP did it for the votes, to win elections...BJP is the only party which gains from these riots," the AAP leader alleged, adding that "from Union ministers, BJP national president, state unit chiefs, party MPs and its leaders--everyone was busy reaping political dividends from these riots".
Notably, the BJP earlier claimed links between the Jahangirpuri violence accused with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). "The mastermind of the attack in Jahangirpuri -- Md Ansar -- has been found to be a worker of AAP. There are evidences of this in the form of photographs. Tahir Hussain who was the mastermind of the Delhi riots in 2020 was also an AAP councilor. Is AAP running a riots factory?" Manoj Tiwari, BJP MP from northeast Delhi, had said.
Meanwhile, the AAP also hit out at the Delhi police for being "hand in glove with the BJP" and acting as per the "script" prepared by the saffron party.
Before the violence broke out, both sides of the mob, including those taking out the Hanuman Jayanti procession, were carrying firearms, swords and other weapons, but the police present there remained mute spectators, Bharadwaj claimed.
"Carrying firearms is a cognisable and non-bailable offence. Why did not they (police) arrest them as and when they saw them carrying firearms and other weapons? It is because they had to act as per the script provided to them by its writers sitting in their (BJP) headquarters," he said.
He added that neither of "the Hindus nor the Muslims" who were carrying the deadly weapons and waiving them in the presence of the police force were arrested.
"It is because there was a script in which the role of SHO and DCP was fixed. Their role was to watch and let the riots happen, and later say Ansar was the mastermind and so and so involved in the incident was from the Aam Aadmi Party; and other party, and BJP had nothing to do with it," the AAP leader alleged.
The constables, deployed at the spot, were mere "scapegoats", he added.
Sharing purported pictures of the accused on Twitter, AAP's Kalkaji MLA Atishi demanded an apology from the BJP for making the 'false' claim that the accused was a member of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
"The main accused in the Jahangirpuri riots, Ansar, is a BJP leader. He played a major role in getting BJP's candidate Sangeeta Bajaj contest elections, and he plays an active role in the BJP," she tweeted in Hindi. "It is clear that the BJP is behind the riots. The party should apologise to Delhiites. BJP is a party of goons," she added.