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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday hit out at the Centre for “playing dirty politics” with national security after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused him of backing “secessionist forces” among the anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh.
For the past nearly two months, Shaheen Bagh has become the centre of mainly women-led protests against the CAA. The BJP, which is battling AAP in the ongoing Delhi elections, have dubbed the protests as a site for congregation of “anti-India” elements and several BJP-governed States have filed sedition charges against an activist called Sharjeel Imam who allegedly made an incendiary and seditious speech at the protest site. The BJP’s campaign in Delhi is now mostly focused on these protests and the party hopes to make electoral gains out of the expected communal polarisation in poll-bound Delhi in the wake of these developments.
The Delhi CM has refused to engage with this discourse this far but after Ravi Shankar Prasad’s accusation, Kejriwal finally broke his silence and mounted a sharp counter attack. He said the BJP does not want to solve any issue and fan discontent because “all they know is how to do dirty politics”.
At the same time, the Congress which also was accused by the BJP of backing ‘anti-India forces’ and ‘tukde tukde gang (secessionists)’ at Shaheen Bagh, also hit back with the former Home Minister P Chidambaram saying that the “real tukde tukde gang is the ruling party which is determined to divide India on religious lines”.
Kejriwal, on his part, advised senior ministers in the Centre to engage with the protesters and sort out the issue as opposed to “doing dirty politics”.
“Ravi Shankar Prasad was doing press conference on Shaheen Bagh. He could have gone there. Law and Order problem in Delhi is not going to be addressed by doing press conferences. It will be addressed by working honestly. Why don’t you learn from us how one should do some real work? They should all go to Shaheen Bagh, talk to them and solve it. Home Minister, Piyush Goyal, Ravi Shankar Prasad, everyone should go there and have a dialogue with the protesters and sort this out,” said Kejriwal.
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