As BJP intensifies attack, AAP digs into mythology to defend leaders

A BJP worker posing as AAP leader Manish Sisodia inside a life-size model of a Tihar jail cell in Delhi on Friday.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday continued to attack the Aam Aadmi Party over alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped 2021-22 Delhi excise policy, and staged a protest outside the AAP headquarters here.

BJP workers made life-size models of Tihar jail cells with two protesters wearing masks of jailed AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain. Senior BJP leaders, including MPs Parvesh Sahib Singh and Ramesh Bidhuri, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, led the protest and sought Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation.

Heavy security arrangements were made outside the AAP headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, with barricades to restrict the protesters from reaching the party office.

A model of the CM’s residence was also used at the demonstration, with various alleged scams written on it. the BJP accusing the AAP government of providing “VIP treatment” to its leader in prison. Last year, videos of Mr. Jain allegedly getting massages inside his cell in Tihar jail had gone viral.

In response to the BJP attack, Mr. Kejriwal compared the party with the mythological demon Hiranyakashyap. “Hiranyakashyap thought he was a God. Some people today consider themselves God. And have put Prahlad [referring to Mr. Sisodia], who served the country, in jail,” the AAP national convenor tweeted.

Earlier in the day, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said when someone joins the BJP, that person becomes “Raja Harishchandra”, the mythological king synonymous with absolute adherence to the truth.

“The bigger the corrupt, the bigger the officebearer they become. This is the new slogan of the BJP. If you are a BJP leader, you are Raja Harishchandra,” he alleged at a press conference.