BJP set to take fight with AAP to next level in Bagga case

Vibha Sharma

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New Delhi, May 6

With the situation turning on its head by the evening in a day full of dramatic political developments, the BJP is now all set to take the fight against its main rival in Delhi and Punjab to the next level. The party today tore into AAP for “misusing” the Punjab police for “abducting” Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and accused party supremo Arvind Kejriwal of pursuing “vendetta politics” using Punjab police.

While the BJP collectively stood in support of Bagga, it’s Delhi unit said they would be taking up the matter with the National Commission for Minorities for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the Sikh community. 

Shortly after Bagga’s arrest, Delhi BJP Sikh leaders Manjinder Singh Sirsa and RP Singh castigated AAP and Kejriwal for “insulting” a Sikh (Bagga). Hundreds of BJP workers also gathered outside AAP headquarters, breaking barricades and accusing Kejriwal of “misusing power”.

“Kejriwal and Mann should apologise,” the protesters demanded.

Sirsa said he was astonished that despite a Sikh being the Chief Minister in Punjab, a Sikh was insulted at his house and picked up by the police without his dastar (turban).

“What is he, a terrorist?,” Sirsa questioned, alleging that Kejriwal wanted to “silence and intimidate” those “unmasking him and speaking the truth against him”.

BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh cautioned Kejriwal saying that “your acts cannot scare a true Sikh”.

“Tejinder was not even allowed to wear patka and dastar which is a disgrace and insult to a Sikh. It is a huge crime to take a Sikh man away like this without letting him tie his turban,” Chugh said.

Observers say the incident has certainly helped charge BJP cadres to its advantage in Delhi—a state which has eluded the saffron party for nearly 25 years, including in times when it swept the rest of the country under the “Modi wave”.