The BJP and Congress have launched an all-out attack against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) alleged pro-Khalistani approach. While the BJP said that Kejriwal’s “anti-national face” has been exposed yet again, the Congress has said that it will teach a lesson to those who try to break Punjab.
On Wednesday, Republic TV aired a sting operation that showed a pro-Khalistan movement leader claiming that his front had funded the AAP during the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections. Gurcharan Singh, a member of once banned Dal Khalsa, said that his front had backed the AAP during the polls because it wanted to upset the political forces.
“Look at Punjab. AAP won the elections… We were on the ground, campaigning for the party. We funded the party to see what a campaign makes a difference. And it does make a difference. People voted for AAP. They did not win because of the EVM,” Singh said. When he was told that the AAP didn’t win in the 2017 polls in Punjab, he replied: “The campaigning wasn’t about AAP, it was to counter, to upset the political forces in Punjab. And, see how it happens.”
Watch video:
Reacting to the purported sting, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused Kejriwal of compromising on national security. “The outcome of the sting operation is really shocking. In the video, they were heard saying — We want India to break up. We want Naxals to be free. We want the Maoists to be free because our enemy is the same – Delhi,” Patra told reporters on Thursday.
“The way Arvind Kejriwal is playing with national security to prove his governance is absolutely unacceptable. Arvind Kejriwal’s anti-India character is yet again exposed,” he added.
Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi quoted ex-DGP of Punjab KPS Gill to question AAP’s alleged Khalistan links. He said that the latest sting by a channel has only attested Gill’s statement that he had made just before his death.
“The nation and the Congress party had to make several sacrifices to curb Khalistani terrorism. We even lost our beloved PM Indira Gandhiji. Ex DGP of Punjab KPS Gill just before his death had told that AAP is helping Khalistanis,” Singhvi said.
Gill, who had played a key role in ending terrorism in Punjab, had said before the Punjab election that the Aam Aadmi Party “was providing a platform to radical Sikhs settled abroad”.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh warned those trying to harm Punjab of dire consequences. “Whoever tries to harm us, we will teach them a lesson.”
“We are not concerned about what they are doing abroad. Whether they are in Canada, UK or the kind of place they are in, we are not concerned. But I assure you that they (pro-Khalistan elements) will not harm the environment in Punjab,” he said.
The CM added that as far as the donation to the AAP is concerned, “the I-T is looking into it”. “We are probing where the money is coming from and how it is coming. We have got a lot of information that will be passed on to the appropriate authority.”
Meanwhile, when Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia were asked about the party’s Khalistan connection, they evaded the question. However, AAP’s Punjab unit leader Jarnail Singh said that that the Congress should be blamed for the Khalistan movement. He said that the allegations are baseless and the Congress knows it can’t face the AAP in Delhi and Punjab in the upcoming general elections, therefore it is indulging in ‘petty politics’.
“It is because of Congress that the demand for Khalistan was called for. The party is the reason behind the call for Khalistan. It is doing petty politics today,” he told news agency ANI. “The Congress still keeps Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler who were behind the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and other parts of the country.”
The Aam Aadmi Party had finished second in the Punjab polls with 20 chairs in 117 members House.
