Punish those who disturbed Delhi peace: Amit Shah

As the ruling BJP on Thursday slammed Congress, accusing its leadership of fanning protests on CAA/NRC, a whiff of Delhi polls also kicked in when party chief and Home Minister Amit Shah people of Delhi that “Opposition spoilt the peaceful atmosphere of Delhi” and sought mandate for the entire state on the line of Lok Sabha polls in which BJP had won all seven seats.

This was after days after an AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan was repeatedly targetted by BJP leaders, who accused him of instigating violent protests around Jamia and a former Congress from the area not are was booked by the police.

With elections in Jharkhand dealing a shocking defeat to BJP and just two months now left for Delhi polls, Shah was back in election mode, attacking the Opposition for having “spoilt” the Delhi atmosphere and accusing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "obstructing" development.

This came days after AAP’s election campaign was launched with the ‘Acche beete 5 saal, lage raho Kejriwal’ (five years went off well, continue Kejriwal) tagline given by poll strategist Prashant Kishor. The campaign seeks to give an “all is well” message weaving a mood of positivity and good governance model around AAP 's five years tenure. AAP had come to power in 2015 with the message of hope, winning 67 of 70 seats. The rests three had come to BJP and Congress had drawn a blank.

Speaking a an event organized by Delhi Development Authority, Shah, accused the Opposition of creating confusion and misleading people in Delhi on the CAA and spoiling the atmosphere.

Shah’s comments obliquely referred to the violence that broke out during protests in Jamia Nagar and Seelampur, which led to a massive face-off between students-residents of those localities and the police and later a big political row in leaders of Congress, AAP, Left on one side and the BJP on the other side blamed each other for the row and violence.

“Delhi saw it after a long time. People came out on the streets. The Opposition spoilt the peace of Delhi by misleading the people of Delhi. Now the time has come that those who have violated the peace of Delhi should be punished by people of Delhi. I want to ask the people of Delhi should they also not bring a government in Delhi, which maintains peace? They kept quiet in Parliament and then created disturbance outside,” he said

In a veiled reference to left backed students unions and Left-leaning intellectuals opposing the amended citizenship law, Shah declared it was time to defeat the "tukde tukde" gang and expressed confidence that "lotus will bloom" as time is up for the Kejriwal government in Delhi.

"Delhi, you gave (us) all seven BJP MPs, now time to give BJP MLAs (a chance) in the next polls for development of the national capital," Shah said accusing the Kejriwal government of having obstructed the implementation of Centre’s pet schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Ayushman Bharat, saying this attitude deprived the people of benefits, they would have got otherwise.

He also reeled out figures of development works done by Delhi by the central government on railway line, smart city project, rapid transport rail, steps towards checking power pollution including closure of a power plant and asked Delhi people “should speed of development work be increased in Delhi”.

He said Modi government wants to carry out Delhi’s fast development “but this Kejriwal Jhaadu (broom) government is a very big obstacle. People of Delhi should elect a CM, who works and who does not stop work” Jhaadu (broom) is the poll symbol of AAP.