Says BJP, PM out to crush AAP
Jammu: AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Wednesday joined a protest here against the detention of the party’s Doda MLA Mehraj Malik under the Public Safety Act and accused the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to “crush” the party wherever its footprints increase.
Singh strongly condemned the detention of Malik, terming it illegal and unconstitutional, and said that in the entire history of Jammu and Kashmir, no MLA has ever been slapped with PSA.
“The BJP and the prime minister do only one thing — wherever the Aam Aadmi Party progresses and its footprints increase, they try to suppress and crush it. The most important thing they do is file false cases against us and put our leaders in jail,” Singh alleged.
“A living proof of this is Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, including me, and now Mehraj Malik, all being sent to jail — all with the same purpose of silencing their voice,” he told reporters.
Flanked by senior party functionary Imran Hussain, Singh said, “The policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the prime minister is to crush AAP everywhere, but we will resist that.”
He alleged that the BJP is behind every conspiracy against AAP, “which is visible even here”, and added that anyone who speaks against the BJP is branded a drug peddler or worse.
Naming several BJP leaders, he claimed, “All thieves and mafia figures are in the BJP”.
He said, “When the BJP talks about corruption and criminalisation, I feel Osama Bin Laden is speaking about non-violence.”
He blamed the administration for the unrest in Doda. “Law and order is under the BJP’s control, and they are deliberately creating these problems,” the AAP Rajya Sabha MP alleged.
Singh maintained that the party and its leadership will fight this “unlawful act” from the streets to the Parliament and the courts.
“This is completely unconstitutional and illegal. The convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal, has announced that we will continue this fight until we get justice. We are not the kind of people who will remain silent,” he said.
He said, “Because Mehraj Malik was demanding a hospital for the people, the PSA was imposed on him. You are imposing PSA on an elected representative who is holding protests, which are normally imposed on terrorists.”
Taking a dig at the dossier prepared by the administration to detain Malik under PSA, he said, “They are saying that he is a threat to public safety. What kind of joke is this — a person is demanding better hospital facilities for the public, and you are calling him a threat to public safety?”
Criticising the dossier, he said that it is just a “bundle of cases, with claims that Mehraj Malik makes spontaneous statements, goes live on Facebook, has two lakh followers, and these somehow influence people — all baseless allegations”.
He said the party has started this movement and will continue it together with the people of Doda and of Jammu and Kashmir to seek justice for Malik.
Asked whether the Omar Abdullah government is facing the same issues that the AAP government faced in Delhi, he replied that he had already spoken about this before the elections.
The AAP leader said, “Omar Abdullah had emphasised the need to fight against all such draconian laws and stood for the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Today, it is time to deliver on those promises.”
He said, “The Omar Abdullah government should fight against it.”
To a query on the alleged use of abusive language by MLA Malik against officials, he retorted that officials “often use abusive language” toward the public.
“Visit police stations and government offices, and you will witness it yourself. Crores of people across the country face false charges, cases, and verbal abuse from officials, including police personnel. Expressing our opinions does not make us terrorists.”
On the issue of violence in Nepal, he said it reflects a public revolt. “We do not support violence, but democratically elected governments must address public grievances. If the solution is firing, it will only worsen the situation. Things are completely out of control there.”
Regarding the voting for the post of Vice President, he stated, “Which party indulged in cross-voting and who are the individuals involved — the party will conduct an investigation and take action accordingly.”
On flood relief packages, he said the Rs 1,600-crore package given to Punjab is a case of step-motherly treatment towards the state.
Replying to a question about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday, he claimed, “The prime minister will resign on that day.”
Meanwhile, AAP’s Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was “misusing laws” to target the opposition and claimed that the detention of the party’s Jammu and Kashmir MLA Mehraj Malik under the PSA showed the ruling party was “afraid of AAP”.
There was no immediate response from the BJP regarding the allegations.
Addressing a press conference, Bharadwaj said, “In Delhi, one of our MLAs, Naresh Balyan, has been in jail for over 10 months under MCOCA. There is no law left under which our Okhla MLA Amantullah Khan is not being charged. Our leader, Arvind Kejriwal, was sent to jail, Manish Sisodia was sent to jail, and Sanjay Singh was sent to jail. Now they have arrested our J&K MLA Mehraj Malik under PSA so they can keep him in jail for many years.”
He claimed that thousands of people had taken to the streets in Doda to protest Malik’s arrest, prompting authorities to impose a curfew and suspend internet services.
“Why is the BJP so afraid of AAP MLAs? We have only one MLA in Jammu and Kashmir. We are not afraid of the BJP; people are with us,” Bharadwaj asserted.
The AAP leader alleged that the detention was “politically motivated” and an attempt to crush the party’s growing influence.
