Aam Admi Party seemed to back the hate campaign of BJP that the “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingyas” were behind the communal violence in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.
AAP said not just in the capital Delhi, the Narendra Modi government got Rohingyas and Bangladeshis illegally settled in different parts of the country as well, alleging that the BJP wants to use them to carry out riots.
“BJP netas are talking about Rohingya. The BJP must give an estimate of how many Rohingya and Bangladeshis have settled here in the past eight years and where. Once the BJP says how many Rohingya and Bangladeshis have settled and where, we will know where the next riot will happen,” AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.
“I want to pose two questions to the BJP. For the last eight years, why did you get Rohingyas and Bangladeshis illegally settled across India? We want numbers of such people settled. If you cannot, then go and die,” Sisodia told reporters on Wednesday.
AAP’s official handle has shared a video of AAP leader Atishi Marlena in which she claims that BJP has settled Rohingyas and Bangladeshis illegally in India to perpetrate riots.
“The BJP has settled Bangladeshis and Rohingyas across the country to cause riots,” read a tweet in Hindi by AAP’s official handle.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha also blamed “Bangladeshi and Rohingyas Muslims.”
“Sabse zada tadaat me BJP ne ‘Bangladeshi aur Rohingyas’ ko basaya. Isliye basaya hai kyunke unka istemaal karkar dange karayenge,” Chadha said.
Journalists and activists alleged that the AAP is normalising a very dangerous anti-Muslim narrative and is endangering lives of Bengali Muslims through this statements.
“Bengali’s of India are not Bangladeshis. What a disgrace, Atishi,” said AIUDF’s Assam MLA Ashraful Hussain.
“Weird, irresponsible and dangerous statement by AAP leaders, dragging the already vulnerable Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into this equation,” tweeted The Wire founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan.
“This is the sad reality of the Rohingya refugees: they have been targets of violence at home and, apparently, in India too. Why would the Aam Aadmi Party and it’s leaders paint a larger target on the backs of a people already vulnerable to Hindutva hate?” he asks.
“AAP in Delhi is essentially a party for disappointed BJP supporters. It’s not a party for Muslims. After NE Delhi violence, hounding of Tablighi Jamaat, this is the third betrayal. It should be ready for more Chauhan Bangar type defeats,” read a tweet by journalist Aditya Menon.
