AAP lashes out at BJP after Delhi chief felicitates 8 who vandalised CM’s home

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta organised a ceremony at the party office on Thursday, and welcomed the eight accused with garlands.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit on Thursday felicitated eight members of the party’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, who were arrested for vandalising Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official residence in Civil Lines, evoking sharp reactions from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which said that the saffron party was promoting hooliganism.

Protesters vandalised property at Kejriwal’s house on March 30. (HT Photo)

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta organised a ceremony at the party office on Thursday, and welcomed the eight accused with garlands."The eight activists of BJYM who went to jail for protest against anti-Hindu Kejriwal got bail from the court after 14 days. Welcomed these young revolutionaries at the party office today. Each of our worker will keep on fighting anti-Hindu forces,” Gupta tweeted with a photo of the event.

The eight BJYM members -- Chander Kant Bhardwaj, Naveen Kumar, Neeraj Dixit, Sunny, Jitender Singh Bisht, Pradeep Kumar Tiwari, Raju Kumar Singh and Bablu Kumar -- got bail from the high court which said that the continued detention of the applicants in judicial custody “is clearly not required for proper investigation of the offences”.

The AAP lashed out at the BJP with deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia saying that the BJP was felicitating those who launched a “murderous attack on the CM’s house”.

“The BJP is felicitating those who launched a murderous attack on the chief minister’s house by garlanding them. This proves that the BJP not only enlists goons but also promotes goondaism and rowdyism,” Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.

On March 30, members of BJYM led by BJP MP from Bangalore South Tejasvi Surya protested outside the residence of Delhi CM against his remarks on the movie, The Kashmir Files. The protesters jumped barricades, clashed with the police, threw paint on the main gate and damaged a CCTV camera and boom barrier.

While Sisodia then called it an attempt to assassinate the Delhi CM, Surya alleged that Kejriwal mocked and denied the massacre of Kashmiri Pandits in the assembly.

Senior AAP leader Atishi said the BJP was “celebrating criminals”.

“After 8 days of detention, when the court did issue bail to these criminals, they were celebrated and honoured with garlands at the BJP office in Delhi by state president Adesh Gupta. By praising these goons, the BJP has exposed its real face before the entire nation. They have clearly shown the world the kind of dirty politics and powerplay the party wishes to indulge in, and that it respects and enables criminals and violence in the party,” Atishi said at a press conference.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the BJYM workers “just protested”, and did not indulge in violence.

He condemned Atishi for calling the BJYM workers “goonda”. “Our demonstration was a protest against CM Arvind Kejriwal who insulted Kashmiri Hindus. We again demand that Kejriwal unconditionally apologise to Kashmiri Hindus and the Hindu community,” said Kapoor.