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HomePolitics'Can't afford to take risks': Why AAP leaders have been avoiding Jahangirpuri...

‘Can’t afford to take risks’: Why AAP leaders have been avoiding Jahangirpuri since riot

No AAP minister or MLA was on spot during Wednesday's demolition drive. Party followed similar strategy of keeping distance during Shaheen Bagh protest.

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New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) ministers and legislators have avoided visiting Jahangirpuri in northwest Delhi or being seen with local residents since communal violence took place in the area Saturday, following directions from the party’s top leadership, ThePrint has learnt. 

When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation carried out a demolition drive against “encroachment” in Jahangirpuri Wednesday, no AAP MLA or minister visited the spot.

The party had adopted a similar strategy during the protests, largely by Muslim women, at Shaheen Bagh in 2019 against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, even though some of its local leaders and MLAs were supportive of the movement in a personal capacity.   

Jahangirpuri witnessed communal violence when a Hanuman Jayanti procession passed through the area Saturday, leaving eight police personnel and one local resident injured. At least 23 persons have been arrested so far, and large numbers of security personnel have been deployed in the area.

AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned the incident on Twitter and appealed for peace, discussed the issue with lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and sought strict punishment for the guilty. 

Kejriwal also allowed party colleagues to hold a press conference accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of engineering the violence. The two parties have traded accusations over the political affiliation of the alleged “main conspirator”, Ansar. 

But, so far, none of the top leaders of the AAP, including its ministers in the Delhi cabinet and MLAs, has visited the area.

Six legislators and councillors of the party told ThePrint that in such “sensitive matters” the protocol is to wait for a clear signal from the top leadership before registering a physical presence among local people. In the case of Jahangirpuri, they said, they have been asked to maintain a distance in terms of visiting the area, being seen with locals or holding public meetings.

“It is not that the party is anti-Muslim,” argued a senior functionary in the AAP who did not wish to be identified. “In communal events, it becomes a complicated affair in terms of electoral prospects. At a time when the party is expanding its footprints across states and sees the BJP as its primary opponent in the larger canvas, it cannot afford to take risks.”

AAP’s position on bulldozer politics

On Wednesday, the BJP-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation conducted an “anti-encroachment” drive in Jahangirpuri, deploying bulldozers. This echoed the recent demolition drives against the property of people accused of crimes in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, although in Jahangirpuri it was officially aimed only at clearing pavements and roads. The Supreme Court later imposed a stay on the drive.

While Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat arrived in Jahangirpuri and pleaded with officers to stop the demolition drive, no minister or MLA of the AAP has visited the spot, ThePrint has learnt.

On Twitter, senior AAP leaders such as Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and Delhi MLA Atishi accused the BJP of corruption and asserted that the party’s headquarters in Delhi should be bulldozed.

Later in the day, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia held a press conference in which he categorically accused the BJP of creating settlements of Bangladeshi nationals and people of Rohingya ethnicity across states, and eventually using people from these communities to engineer violence. This comes after BJP leaders blamed Bangladeshis for the Jahangirpuri violence.

Sisodia further accused the BJP of “drama” over Wednesday’s “bulldozer drive” and said that the residences of corrupt BJP leaders should be demolished in such fashion.

On being asked about the AAP’s stand on the bulldozer issue and whether it condemns the drive, Sisodia said: “The party’s stand on the issue is that bulldozers should be taken to the houses of those BJP councillors who have been taking bribes over 15 years and letting such illegal structures and encroachments happen in the first place.”

During the 2020 Delhi riots, the AAP government in Delhi had faced criticism over leaders not visiting riot-affected areas. In the initial phase of the riots, no AAP leader visited the area, even though Sisodia eventually set up a control room at the district magistrate’s office in Nand Nagri to monitor the rescue and rehabilitation process.

(Edited by Rohan Manoj)


Also read: ‘No one listened’: Jahangirpuri residents cry after bulldozers raze ‘illegal’ shops & structures


 

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