Delhi Police detains AAP leaders protesting against BJP over Guru Tegh Bahadur issue

Several AAP leaders, including its Delhi unit president Saurabh Bhardwaj, were detained on Sunday when they were holding a protest against the BJP over the Guru Tegh Bahadur issue, accusing the ruling party of circulating a “doctored” video of former Delhi chief minister Atishi.

The protest was held near the BJP headquarters with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders demanding an apology from Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

“The BJP should apologise for making fake videos in relation to Guru Tegh Bahadur. This is their dirty politics. They made this fake video to run away from the real issues of Delhi,” AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha said.

People will not forgive this disrespect of the Guru; all BJP leaders should apologise, he charged.

The Delhi BJP leaders, including Law Minister Kapil Mishra, using the clip, had alleged that Atishi insulted Guru Tegh Bahadur in the Assembly during a debate on a programme organised by the Delhi government to mark the 350th martyrdom day of the ninth Sikh Guru last November.

Delhi BJP president Virendraa Sachdeva said that AAP will have to apologise for using abusive words against the Guru.

“Leader of the Opposition Atishi in the Delhi Assembly used abusive words about our Gurus, and when BJP leaders raised this issue, Arvind Kejriwal got an FIR registered against Kapil Mishra by the Punjab Police, which the Punjab Police has no authority to do,” Sachdeva said in a post on X in Hindi.

Kejriwal, Atishi and his entire “gang” will have to apologise for the abusive words they used about our Gurus, he added.

Atishi, on her part, had accused the BJP of indulging in petty politics by dragging the name of the ninth Sikh guru into the controversy.

In a video post on X, Atishi had claimed that she was talking about the BJP running away from a discussion on pollution and about their protest in the Assembly on the issue of stray dogs.

But the BJP deliberately added a false subtitle and inserted the name of Guru Tegh Bahadur into it, she had claimed, referring to the clip.

The former Delhi chief minister also said that she belongs to a family in which, for generations, the eldest son adopted Sikhism. She would rather die than insult the Guru Sahib, Atishi had said.

On Friday, the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate filed an FIR in connection with uploading and circulating the “edited” and “doctored” video of Atishi in the Delhi Assembly.