BJP accuses AAP of armed rally on Ram Navami; party rubbishes charge

NEW DELHI: Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday accused members of members of Aam Aadmi Party of allegedly inciting the crowd and vitiating the atmosphere outside a mosque in the Capital, a charge denied vociferously by the ruling AAP.

"On Saturday, I saw on a channel that on Sri Ram Navami, some saffron clad people gathered outside a Delhi mosque with swords and raised inciting slogans. Later, it was revealed they belonged to AAP. It is a clear attempt to vitiate atmosphere," Javadekar said.

In response Javadekar's allegation, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said, "Aam Aadmi Party is glad that the BJP's central government has finally accepted that Ram Navami processions by rabid intolerant groups, which brandished swords and used derogatory slogans against Muslims, were an attempt to polarise the society and a recipe for orchestrating riots in Delhi."

He further said, "This Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti saw an unprecedented style of processions across Delhi. There were around 250 such big and small processions across Delhi. They had sought written permissions from Delhi Police. The DCP verified these organisations and their processions routes comprising of Masjids and the DCPs gave them permissions."

"Delhi Police is directly under the BJP-led central government and it would take him less than five minutes to find out who organised these Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions in Delhi? Which organisations are behind all this? As he is already convinced that these organisations were orchestrating riots in Delhi, he should immediately get them arrested and prosecuted under law of the land," the Greater Kailash MLA added.

Mirroring Javadekar's words, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Manoj Tiwari alleged that some AAP workers dressed in saffron and wielding swords had raised provocative slogans outside a mosque during a Ram Navami procession.

The AAP said the 'wild' accusations were a desperate bid to mislead the public and divert attention from the rapes committed in Unnao and Kathua in BJP ruled states.

Referring to a video clip telecast by a Hindi channel, Tiwari claimed that AAP and the Congress were trying to 'break' the society, as development was no longer an issue for them, and trying to defame the BJP.

Describing the incident, he alleged that a group of four or five people wearing saffron gamchas and wielding swords raised provocative slogans in front of a mosque in the Capital, immediately after a Ram Navami procession passed by it.