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Delhi Assembly polls:References to lord Ram and Hanuman in the campaigning on the penultimate day
Kejriwal’s reference to lord Hanuman coincided with the Congress accusing the AAP of invoking lord Ram’s name for vote gathering, said a news agency.
Delhi Chief Minister and the head of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Arvind Kejriwal has said that the BJP is upset because he reads the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’. Kejriwal further added that the BJP leaders should also start reading it (prayer to lord Hanuman) daily as it will improve their language.
Kejriwal’s tweet follows a bitter election campaign for Delhi elections where leaders have often hurled insults at each other and it comes on a day when the election commission slapped a 24-hour campaigning ban on BJP MP Parvesh Verma for using the ‘terrorist’ tag to describe Kejriwal a few days ago.
“BJP is troubled since I read Hanuman Chaalisa. I desire that they read it daily too. They will find peace and their language will improve too,” his tweet said.
Kejriwal’s reference to lord Hanuman coincided with the Congress accusing the AAP of invoking lord Ram’s name for vote gathering, said a news agency.
The agency cited Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit’s quote to claim the party had requested the election commission to act against AAP for a video doing the rounds on social media showing a Hindu man being advised in his dream by a man playing lord Ram to vote for AAP. Kejriwal’s party has denied its involvement with the video.
“This is a clear violation of the model code of conduct and the authorities should take action as no party can use the name of Gods to get votes, this is their agenda (AAP) to communalise the election,” Dikshit was quoted as saying.
The second- last day of campaigning was marked with several religious references as Kejriwal had earlier welcomed the setting up of a trust to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya after the Supreme Court judgment.
“There is no right time for good work,” Kejriwal said, virtually endorsing the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in parliament on Wednesday morning.
Addressing a press conference at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office, Kejriwal congratulated the people of the country, saying this was a good thing.
“Some people are asking about the timing. There is no right time for good work. Let’s make announcements for good work,” Kejriwal said before adding, “I want them to make more announcements today as well as tomorrow and there is no problem,” Kejriwal said.
His response was to allegations that the BJP-led Centre could have timed the announcement to influence the assembly polls in Delhi, to be held in three days time on February 8.
Kejriwal even asked for double punishment for Kapil Baisala, the man who fired in the air at Shaheen Bagh, the venue of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), if it could be proven that he belonged to the AAP.
Kejriwal told reporters that there should be no compromise on national security.
“I am not aware of his (Baisala’s) ties with any political party. If he is even remotely related to the AAP, he should be given a double punishment. If he deserves 10 years in jail, he should be given a 20-year jail term. There should not be any compromise on national security,” Kejriwal was quoted as saying by a news agency.
Delhi police had claimed on Tuesday that Baisala was a member of the AAP, triggering a war of words between the Kejriwal-led party and the BJP.
