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Shah hits out at AAP, but stays mum on JNU violence
New Delhi: A day after violent clashes took place at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Union home minister Amit Shah Monday addressed a gathering at an event to lay the foundation stone for Delhi CycleWalk project but refrained from commenting on the violence at the central university.
He, however, accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress of “misleading” people on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which had been seeing countrywide protests.
Later in the evening, responding to Shah’s allegations, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said and he “will not reply to the BJP in the same manner and would be presenting his party’s manifesto soon”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president also held the AAP and the Congress responsible for “riots” in the national capital over the amended citizenship law.
“The Congress and the AAP misled the youth and people of Delhi and committed the sin of burning the national capital in the fire of riots,” Shah alleged.
Shah clarified that the new legislation is to give citizenship to minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have sought refuge in India and there was no provision in the amended law to snatch away citizenship from anybody.
Taking a dig at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal ahead of the Delhi assembly polls, Shah said the AAP government “did not fulfil” 80% of its promises and also stalled the implementation of Ayushman Bharat, the Centre’s mega health scheme, in the national capital.
Delhi is slated to go for polls on February 8 and the results will be declared on February 11.
“They have stalled Ayushman Bharat scheme for political gains so that poor can’t benefit from it. You (Kejriwal) are scared that if Ayushman Bharat is implemented, people will connect with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I want to tell him that Delhi people are with Modi as they know the reality of AAP,” Shah said.
He added that the AAP was supplying “poisonous” water to people. He also blamed the Kejriwal government of delaying the regularisation of 1,731 unauthorised colonies in Delhi.
Shah hit out at Kejriwal for not granting sanction to prosecute those who allegedly raised anti-India slogans on JNU campus in 2016.
“Some students shouted anti-India slogans, said ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’. Tell me should they not be sent to jail? But Kejriwal is not granting sanction to prosecute them. Who do you want to save, Kejriwal ji?” he said.
Kejriwal said, “I wholeheartedly accept whatever he (Shah) has said about me, and I want to assure you that we will never reply to them in the same manner. We will be presenting our manifesto soon, and I want to request the BJP to share their vision with us, suggest steps for the welfare of Delhi. We are open to adding all their positive suggestions to our manifesto and will work on them in the next five years.”