Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, on the 26th of September, called for a protest outside the residence of Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi.
The protest started after Arvind Kejriwal, on the 24th of September, commented against Manoj Tiwari, the President of the BJP in Delhi, regarding the National Register of Citizens (NRC.)
Mr. Kejriwal took a dig at Manoj Tiwari and the BJP and said, “He says if there is NRC in Delhi then people from Bihar and UP will have to leave. This is shameful. Some people don’t understand that the ‘N’ in NRC is for ‘National.’”
Manoj Tiwari is a BJP member from Bihar and is currently serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) of West Delhi.
Mr. Tiwari responded to the criticism of Kejriwal and claimed it was an insult to the migrants from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Tiwari said, “Does Kejriwal, who is an IRS (Indian Revenue Service) officer, not know what NRC is? This statement exposes Kejriwal’s real face. It shows that he wants to evict the Purvanchali migrants from Delhi. This is an insult to the Purvanchalis living in Delhi since decades.”
The BJP workers called for a protest and demanded an apology from Mr. Kejriwal for his NRC comment against Tiwari.
The NRC list was published on the 31st of August and aims to list out the legal immigrants residing in Assam. Approximately 1.9 million people were not a part of the list and did not get the citizenship of Assam.
Arvind Kejriwal made a reference to the NRC list and claimed if Delhi has this kind of a list, then Manoj Tiwari will also be asked to leave the National Capital. The comments of Mr. Kejriwal were based on Tiwari’s demand to implement the NRC in Delhi as the situation in Delhi is dangerous due to the presence of several illegal immigrants.
Apart from BJP leaders and workers, Alka Lamba, a former member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who recently quit the Party, also criticised Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP President.
Ms. Lamba said, “If Manoj Tiwari should leave the National Capital according to Arvind Kejriwal, then he should also do the same. If that happens, only people like you and me will be left in Delhi…. who was born here, grew up here and struggled in this City…. not like the ones who came from outside for a power struggle.”
Kapil Mishra, a leader of the BJP, said the sentiments of the Purvanchali community were hurt by Kejriwal’s comment. Mishra even filed a police complaint against Kejriwal for the same.
The Purvanchali community and BJP leaders are protesting outside Kejriwal’s house. The Delhi Police reached the spot and are trying to control the situation and detained several Party supporters.
Stay tuned for further updates.
