New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed Monday that the entire Shaheen Bagh protest was ‘scripted by the BJP’. The AAP said the BJP’s leadership dictated each and every move of the agitators for electoral benefits in Delhi polls. However, the saffron party has rebutted the allegations.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj made the claim here Monday. His statement came a day after several members of the minority Muslim community from Shaheen Bagh area joined the BJP. Shaheen Bagh was the centre of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests here.
Bhardwaj alleged the BJP’s campaign for the Delhi election centred around the Shaheen Bagh protests. It was the only party that benefited from the controversy surrounding the agitation.
“Delhi Assembly election could have been fought on the issue of education, health, environment or other developmental narratives. But the Delhi BJP chose to fight the election on the issue of Shaheen Bagh,” Bhardwaj told a press conference.
“The whole Shaheen Bagh protest was scripted by the BJP. The topmost leadership of the BJP scripted each and every step of these protests. They decided who will speak what, who will attack whom and then who will be doing the counter-attack. All these things were preplanned and well-scripted,” Bharadwaj claimed.
“Today the question is: does the BJP want to give a message that the people who used to raise anti-national slogans will now be part of the BJP?” Bhardwaj he asked.
Bhardwaj’s allegations drew a rebuttal from Manoj Tiwari, the chief of Delhi BJP when these protests happened. Tiwari said his party does not discriminate on the basis of religion, caste, creed or lineage.
“Now the confusion is getting cleared and Muslim brothers and sisters want to walk with the BJP. So stop dividing Arvind Kejriwal ji. The world’s largest party BJP represents all religions. It does not discriminate on the basis of religion, caste, creed or lineage,” Tiwari said in a tweet in Hindi.