BJYM leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga not new to controversy

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7

In the eye of the storm over his arrest by the Punjab Police and subsequent dramatic return to Delhi following the intervention of Haryana Police, BJYM leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has a chequered past. Bagga often hit headlines with his acts and statements that created controversies.

Be it alleged attack on activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan or disrupting a book release function of author Arundhati Roy, Bagga is not new to controversy. But it’s his huge Twitter following and ability to take stand that have brought him closer to the high-ups in the BJP.

Perhaps it was for this reason Bagga was invited to join #Super150 — a group of social media influencers hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence on the sidelines of the Digital India launch.

The fact that he is a Sikh makes him all the more important for the BJP, which has been going an extra mile to woo the community after partying ways with the SAD.

Bagga, 36, is a national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and also serves as the incharge of Uttarakhand’s BJP youth wing. His ability to remain active 24x7 on social media or otherwise puts him in the league of BJP leaders, who have taken advantage of technology to connect with its party workers, media and the masses.

In the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, Bagga unsuccessfully contested from Hari Nagar. In the run-up to the 2020 polls, Bagga had called Shaheen Bagh, which was an epicentre of protests against the citizenship law, a “base of traitors”. He had also announced carrying out “surgical strikes on such bases” after the polls results.

A businessman, Bagga runs “T-Shirt Bhaiyya”, an online store that sells dress materials and items of home décor and jewellery. He also runs

“Kulhad Biryani: India’s First Jhatka Biryani Brand” as a counter to halal meat.

Back home, the BJYM leader has now been provided security cover. “Bagga expressed apprehension over his security. We will make necessary arrangements,” a senior Delhi Police officer said.

Chequered past

• BJYM leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga came to limelight for the first time in 2011, when he barged into lawyer Prashant Bhushan’s chambers and assaulted him for his “separatist remarks”
• The same year, he disrupted Arundhati Roy’s book launch, calling her works “pro-Kashmir azadi”
• His group, Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, defaced walls around the Pakistan High Commission and put up posters demanding freedom for Balochistan

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