Amritsar police has filed an FIR against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Ashish Khetan late on Tuesday night for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The case has been registered under Section 295-A (hurting religious sentiments) after Khetan equated AAP’s manifesto for upcoming Punjab elections with Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scripture of Sikhs.
This is what Khetan had said while releasing his party’s youth manifesto in Amritsar on Saturday which angered the Sikh community,
”This is our Bible, our Gita and our Guru Granth Sahib”
However after criticism, Mr Khetan apologized saying he didn’t mean to disrespect the holy books. He also said the party never “intended to undermine any section, community or any individual”. But the All India Sikh Students Federation rejected the apology and the group’s President Karnail Singh Peer registered a complaint thereafter.
Meanwhile, Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has called his statement an “act of blasphemy”. Stating that he bowed his head to Guru Granth Sahib everyday and took blessings from it as devout Sikhs did worldwide, Badal said nothing could be equated to the holy book.
The Sikh community is also up in arms against AAP after the party also used an image of the Sikh shrine Golden Temple along with a smiling Arvind Kejriwal and AAP’s election symbol — the broom.
Delhi CM Kejriwal, who was also present at the Amritsar event, was attacked on social media, with hashtags like #KejriinsultsGoldenTemple trending on Twitter.
I mean…The Golden Temple is beyond politics…
To drag it into a political manifesto is simply not done.. #KejriInsultsGoldenTemple— parmarsap (@parmarsap) July 5, 2016
This is not the first time AAP has run into trouble in Punjab. AAP’s Delhi lawmaker Naresh Yadav was recently questioned on an incident involving the alleged desecration of the Quran.