BJP resorts to fear-mongering ahead of Delhi polls as Congress, AAP remain indifferent

The BJP’s fear-mongering over demographic change by alleged “ghuspaithiye” (read: Muslim infiltrators) and the divisive rhetoric of ‘batenge toh katenge’ in poll-bound Jharkhand and Maharashtra, respectively, has come in for strident criticism from allies and rivals alike.

Yet, in Delhi, with an apathetic AAP and ineffective Congress as its rivals and no allies of its own to worry about, the saffron party is going full steam ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year to deepen communal divide and further demonise Muslims.

On November 13, the Najafgarh Market Association in South West Delhi directed all its vegetable and fruit vendors to display their names and phone numbers on their carts in a bid to “prevent illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants” from operating in the market. The move came at the behest of Amit Kharkhari, the BJP councillor from Najafgarh. Kharkhari claims the decision was taken “unanimously” after consultation with stakeholders in the Najafgarh Market Association (NMA). Incidentally, the NMA president, Santosh Rajput, also happens to be a local BJP functionary.

Also read: ‘Batenge toh katenge’ slogan divides Mahayuti days ahead of Maharashtra polls

Vendors told to display names

Kharkhari, whose father Ajit Kharkhari had served as Najafgarh MLA between 2013 and 2015 but failed to wrest the constituency in the last two Assembly elections, told The Federal that the decision to have all vendors display their names and contact numbers was taken “not to discriminate against people of any religion but to strengthen security in the market”.

“We were receiving many complaints from the market association and Najafgarh residents that suspicious elements had been seen selling vegetables in the market; some people said these were illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators... we are only taking measures to ensure everyone’s safety,” Kharkhari claimed.

He, however, declined to comment on what proof he had of “illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators” working in the Najafgarh area or explain the “suspicious” activity that such people were involved in.

The Najafgarh councillor isn’t the only local BJP leader to ask vendors to display their names and contact numbers at their carts. Ahead of the Diwali and Chhath festivities, Ravinder Negi, the BJP councillor from East Delhi’s Vinod Nagar and a known communal rabble-rouser, “inspected” markets in Vinod Nagar, Mandawali, IP Extension and other adjoining areas directing Muslim meat sellers to “keep your shop closed” during the festivals “to respect” Hindu sensibilities.

Protecting Hindus from ‘jihad’

Last week, Negi set out again to “sensitise street vendors” against the “threat of thook jihad” (another bogey raised by the BJP claiming Muslim vendors spit in the food items they sell to Hindus). As part of this “awareness drive”, Negi also directed “all Hindu” vendors to “display your name and place a bhagwa dhwaj (saffron flag)” on their carts so that “your customers should know you are Hindu... it will increase your sale too”.

Asked with what authority he was directing vendors to display their names and a saffron flag on their carts or telling Muslims meat sellers to keep their shops closed during Hindu festivals, Negi told The Federal, “I am an elected public representative and it is my job to create awareness in my ward about any threat and, as a follower of Sanatan Dharm, it is also my duty to protect the beliefs of Hindus from people who are involved in love jihad, thook jihad and similar illegal, anti-Sanatan activities”.

Also read: BJP’s aggression over ‘infiltrators’ undercuts JMM in key tribal hubs

Sources in the Delhi BJP unit say Kharkhari and Negi are both frontrunners for the party’s ticket from Najafgarh and Patparganj, respectively, for the Delhi Assembly polls likely to be held in end-January. Patparganj also happens to be a VIP seat as its current legislator is former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. In the 2020 Assembly polls, Sisodia had barely retained this seat, defeating Negi by just over 3000 votes.

The actions of Negi and Kharkhari are straight out of the BJP’s toolkit of triggering communal strife. Similar diktats have been issued time and again in various BJP-ruled states or municipal bodies and, often, stayed by the courts. What is, arguably, more appalling, however, is the inaction of the AAP, which rules Delhi and also controls the city-state’s municipal corporation, or even the electorally struggling Congress; both self-proclaimed ‘secular’ parties’ of the INDIA bloc.

AAP, Congress fail to confront BJP

Barring issuing perfunctory condemnations when asked to react to such developments, the AAP and the Congress have done precious little to directly confront local BJP leaders involved in such communal provocations. While Sisodia did not respond to The Federal’s repeated requests for a comment, a close aide of the former deputy chief minister, said, “the BJP is only trying to stir up trouble ahead of the elections because communal polarisation is all it knows... by confronting them on this issue, we will only be walking into their trap; when they see there is no political reaction from AAP to such provocations, these things will die down on their own”.

The ruling AAP’s silence on these clear attempts at creating communal strife in Delhi, ironically, comes at a time when the party has been trying to regain the Muslim community’s confidence ahead of the polls by poaching prominent leaders of the community from the Congress. Earlier this week, former five-term Seelampur MLA Chaudhary Mateen Ahmed quit the Congress and joined the AAP. His son, Chaudhary Zubair Ahmed and daughter-in-law, Shagufta Chaudhary, a Congress councillor, had switched to the AAP in October.

Ahmed’s traditional seat of Seelampur, which he lost to AAP candidates in the last two elections, is part of the Northeast Delhi district that witnessed communal riots shortly after the AAP won the 2020 Assembly polls. The AAP’s apathy towards riot victims and its government’s missing act when alleged BJP-back arsonists went on a rampage in Muslim-dominated areas of the area had severely dented Kejriwal’s popularity within the minority community. Shagufta’s victory on a Congress ticket in the municipal elections was attributed to the AAP’s declining popularity among the Muslims and viewed as a chance for the Congress to revive at least in those parts of Delhi where Muslims had a sizeable population.

Also read: Bangladeshi, Rohingya infiltration major threat to Jharkhand: PM Modi

Congress shifts blame on AAP

The Congress’ inability to stand up for the Muslims against a hate-peddling BJP and an indifferent AAP even as Rahul Gandhi continues to dish out his ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’ homilies, thus, stands out. The grand old party, however, dismisses all such charges.

Former Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary, who also served as the Patparganj MLA from 2008 to 2013, said the BJP “does such things whenever an election is around; as the Assembly polls draw closer, these attempts to create communal tensions will only increase”. Chaudhary said he and his party colleagues were conducting a Nyay Yatra across Delhi and “these issues are being raised by us” even as he sought to shift the blame on AAP for inaction against the BJP.

“It is not just Kharkhari and Negi... other BJP councillors and local BJP leaders have also been threatening Muslims in different parts of Delhi and they are taking a cue from Narendra Modi in raising this issue of infiltrators... the Congress has no MLA in Delhi, we have very few councillors and still in our Nyay Yatra we are raising these things strongly but what is the AAP, which controls both Delhi government and MCD, doing... the Delhi Police is under the Union Home Ministry, what is the police doing to prevent BJP leaders from such activities that adversely impact law and order... the failure is of the AAP and the BJP,” Chaudhary asserted.

Fear of alienating Hindu voters

Veteran journalist Sushil Kumar Singh, who has extensively reported on Delhi politics for over three decades, says the BJP’s “hate-mongering is neither new nor unexpected” given that the Delhi elections are round the corner but adds, “what is troubling is that the BJP has been so successful with its communal polarisation that no so-called secular party, be it the Congress or the AAP, wants to be seen as standing with the Muslims now because they fear that by doing so, they will alienate the majority Hindu voters”.

Also read: Bangladesh lodges protest against Amit Shah's 'infiltrators' remark at Jharkhand rally

Singh points at the muted response from the AAP and the Congress to the Centre’s November 15 decision of renaming Delhi’s landmark Sarai Kale Khan Chowk after tribal icon Birsa Munda. He said, “Most people may think the BJP has done it only because elections are currently underway in Jharkhand, where tribals revere Birsa Munda as bhagwan (god)... a majority of Jharkhand residents won’t even know that the chowk that has been named after Birsa Munda in Delhi is basically a crowded bus terminal; if Modi and Amit Shah really had such great respect for Birsa Munda, surely they could built a memorial for him or named some major road or structure after him... to me this is just an extension of Modi’s continuing strategy of erasing signs of Islamic heritage across the country and asserting his idea of Bharatiyata (being Indian), which is directly linked with the BJP’s electoral strategy of communal polarisation.”

“The tribal population in Delhi is negligible so renaming a place named originally after a Sufi saint who lived in Delhi in the 13th Century may not seem like something that will electorally help the BJP in Delhi but you wait for the Delhi election campaign and see how the BJP will encash this by playing up the communal card... people like Kharkhari and Negi are just foot soldiers, whatever they are doing is part of an elaborate poll strategy of villainising and demonising the Muslims as outsiders, aggressors and infiltrators,” Singh said.