Ahmedabad: Banners terming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as “anti-Hindu” and showing him wearing a skull cap surfaced in several prominent cities in Gujarat on Saturday, the day the AAP leader is on a visit to the poll-bound state to campaign for his party ahead of the Assembly elections.
Along with Kejriwal’s pictures, some banners carried lines like “I consider Hindu religion as madness”, while some others had “anti-Hindu Kejriwal go back” messages.
These banners cropped up in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara cities, a day after a controversy erupted over a video clip showing Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam at a “religious conversion” event where hundreds could be heard taking an oath denouncing Hindu deities. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed the minister and accused the AAP of hurting the sentiments of Hindus.
In Rajkot, the posters targeting the AAP and Kejriwal were destroyed by the party workers.
Banners saying “anti-Hindu Kejriwal go back” were seen in Dahod town, where the Delhi CM and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann were to address a public gathering on Saturday. These two AAP leaders have started their two-day Gujarat visit from Saturday.
The banners carried different sentences, including, “I consider Hindu religion as madness”, “I will not believe in Brahma, Vishnu, Ram and Krishna” and “I will not do ‘shraddha pind daan’ or any other Hindu ritual”. However, all the banners had a common sentence – “These are the words and culture of AAP.”
The AAP has positioned itself as the main contender of the BJP in Gujarat, where Assembly elections are slated to be held soon.
On Friday, the BJP said that people will teach AAP a lesson in the upcoming Assembly elections over its Delhi minister Gautam taking oath denouncing Hindu deities.
State Education Minister Jitu Vaghani said the AAP minister insulted Hindu deities that are centres of devotion for the people of Gujarat, and asked Kejriwal to take strict action against him by sending him to jail.
The political row erupted after a video clip of Gautam at a “religious conversion” event went viral in which hundreds can be heard taking an oath denouncing Hindu deities. Gautam is the social welfare minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government.
During the programme, around 10,000 people reportedly took vows to convert to Buddhism to follow Lord Buddha’s teachings and give up worship of Hindu deities.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been campaigning aggressively in Gujarat by making several promises.
