Arresting Bagga a mistake of Kejriwal!

Bhubaneswar, May 11: Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal committed some blunders in getting BJP leader Tajinder Bagga arrested by Punjab police recently.

Though Punjab Police arrested Bagga, it is generally believed that the arrest was at the behest of Kejriwal whose party sailed to power in Punjab in the recent State Assembly election.

The arrest of Bagga has annoyed the sikh community both in Punjab and New Delhi following Bagga’s allegation that Punjab police, which came to arrest him did not allow him time to wear him even his turban—the pride of any sikh. Some policemen also allegedly assaulted Bagga’s father and punched him in the face when he tried to record the arrest event in his mobile phone.

It is known well that Sikhs form a sizable number of voters in Delhi where elections are due in two more years.

Kejriwal now is also accused of violating the guideline set by the Supreme Court on arrest of persons. The Punjab High Court has also slammed the Punjab police for arresting Bagga despite its clear cut guidelines not to do so. This also goes against the Delhi Chief Minister whic the BJP has tried to term as an act of ‘dictatorship’.

Further, the BJP cadre in Delhi now stands more consolidated as its leaders immediately came to Bagga’s rescue and ensured that the attempt of Punjab police is foiled. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta stood solidly behind Bagga and his family. This has helped the BJP workers and activists spur into enthusiasm as they had been in a state of helplessness for the past few years after AAP stunned them in the Delhi Assembly election nearly two and half years ago. The consolidation of BJP cadre would not augur well for the Aam Aadmi Party.

The third is that AAp has painted a very discouraging picture in Gujarat where it is trying to wrest power from the BJP. Let us know how.

The AAP has been trying to make a dent in BJP vote bank in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh which are going to polls later this year. Kejriwal in his attempt to prove that his party is the only option to counter the juggernaut of BJP, has annoyed people in both the States, where BJP is in power; with the arrest of BJP leader Bagga—one of Kejriwal’s strong critics.

The attempt to promote his party at the national level has apparently boomeranged on the AAP chief and may take a lot of efforts to retrieve it from the mess.

Aj0y Kumar Misra