Will not sacrifice security for votes, says Shah at rally
NEW DELHI: In the centre of north Delhi’s Kamla Nagar market, Union home minister Amit Shah Friday urged residents of the Model Town assembly constituency to vote for ‘desh ki suraksha’ (safety of the country). Assembly polls in the capital are scheduled for February 8.
Shah said the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may be afraid to take a stand against protesters of Shaheen Bagh because they are their “vote bank”, but the BJP and residents of Delhi were not.
He asked voters to press the button (on the electronic voting machine) for the BJP so hard that the shock waves of their vote reach those protesting in Shaheen Bagh:“We don’t want a vote bank that comes in the way of national security. Win or lose, we will not compromise with our country,” Shah said.
He added, “You (voters) have a choice to make on February 8. On one hand, there is Rahul (Gandhi) and (Arvind) Kejriwal who support the protesters of Shaheen Bagh and, on the other, is a man with a 56 inch chest, who enters the enemy’s house and avenges the death of soldiers,” Shah said.
Campaigning for BJP’s Model Town candidate Kapil Mishra, who was a former AAP MLA and Delhi government minister, Shah said at Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU), slogans of “Bharat tere tukde honge” were raised.
He said, “Abuse me, even my party or party men but if you abuse my country, we will put you behind bars.”
The home minister Friday also said for the “lock of development” to open in Delhi, voters will have to choose the BJP. He said just like a suitcase with a combination lock, unless the state governance is also given to the BJP, the case will not open.
“You chose us in the municipality, you chose us at the Centre, but in the state, you gave the power to Kejriwal. How will the case open? Promise me to choose BJP in the state as well,” Shah said. BJP’s candidate Mishra said he left the AAP and joined the BJP because he could not handle the corruption and “anti-nationalism” of the party.
“Anna, Anna karne wale jab Jinnah Jinnah karne lage, toh mere jaise desh bhakt chhod aaye, (When the people who supported Anna Hazare, started supporting the ideologies of Jinnah, nationalists like me left them),” Mishra said.
Shah also addressed a rally at the Tri Nagar constituency where he accused the AAP government of not fulfilling any promises made to Delhi voters.
“Today I challenge Kejriwal, if you have done anything to clean river Yamuna, then take a dip in it or come to Prayagraj and look at Ganga,” Shah said.