A day after poll drubbing, BJP MLA calls Kejriwal a ‘terrorist’
nNEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s MLA from Vishwas Nagar OP Sharma on Wednesday called Delhi chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal a “terrorist”, adding that he “sympathises with those who talk about breaking the country”.
Sharma, the sitting MLA from the constituency in east Delhi, has retained his seat this election, defeating his nearest AAP rival by over 16,000 votes.
This is not the first time that Kejriwal was called “terrorist” by a BJP leader. In the run up to the Delhi Assembly election this month, BJP MP Parvesh Verma had referred the CM as a “terrorist”. Verma later clarified that he meant naxalite. On February 3, Union minister Prakash Javadekar had said that there was enough evidence to prove that “Arvind Kejriwal is a terrorist”.
Sharma made these remarks while speaking to reporters after a meeting Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari at the party office on Pandit Pant Marg on Wednesday. However, Sharma later said that he did not call Kejriwal a terrorist but said that “Kejriwal cannot be a patriot as he questioned surgical strike and talks in tune with the Pakistan”.
Clarifying his remarks, Sharma said, “I have not exactly called him a terrorist but I simply clarified that anyone who supports tukde-tukde gang, questions surgical strike and talks in tune with Pakistan, cannot be a patriot. Kejriwal did all these things and he clearly cannot be called a ‘deshbhakt’ and terrorist is an appropriate term for him.”
Calls and messages to the Aam Aadmi Party, seeking a comment on Sharma’s statement did not elicit a response.
At the Delhi BJP office, Sharma said anyone sympathising with anti-nationals cannot be a patriot. “You (Kejriwal) support tukde-tukde gang in JNU and then say that people call you a terrorist. You are a terrorist. You talk like a spokesperson of Pakistan government and their army after surgical strike and also question the Indian army. Only a terrorist can do such work, not a patriot,” Sharma told reporters.
Sharma is no stranger to controversy. He had been caught on camera beating a CPI activist at Patiala House court complex when JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was being produced there in connection with the JNU sedition case . Days later he was arrested for the assault but released on bail.
He had also been suspended from the Assembly for two sessions for making a derogatory comment against then AAP MLA Alka Lamba.