New Delhi [India], January 21 : Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Wednesday demanded an apology from Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj over his recent remarks on BJP's top leadership after Nitin Nabin was appointed as the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Addressing reporters, Sachdeva said that Bharadwaj's statement, allegedly made at the behest of AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, insults the Constitution framed by Dr BR Ambedkar and is offensive to people belonging to the Scheduled Castes. He termed the remarks condemnable and politically motivated.
"On the instructions of Arvind Kejriwal, the statement given by Saurabh Bharadwaj yesterday, insults the Baba Saheb's Constitution and people from the Scheduled Caste," Sachdeva told reporters.
Sachdeva questioned Bharadwaj's claim by citing the examples of former President Ram Nath Kovind, who belongs to the Dalit community, and President Droupadi Murmu from the tribal community, saying their elevation reflected respect and recognition for marginalised sections of society. He demanded that Arvind Kejriwal apologise for the statement and suspend Bharadwaj from the party.
"I want to ask him--if Ram Nath Kovind ji from the Dalit community and Droupadi Murmu ji from the tribal community became Presidents, does that not signify respect for their communities? Saurabh Bharadwaj's statement is condemnable. Arvind Kejriwal should apologise and suspend him," Sachdeva said.
Sachdeva's reaction comes in the backdrop of AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj's recent remarks, where, in an 'X' post, he claimed that the BJP-led NDA appoints Chief Ministers and Presidents in a manner that ensures no leader emerges as a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's authority.
Bharadwaj also claimed that the newly appointed BJP national president, Nitin Nabin, lacked the political stature to be counted among the country's top leaders.
"Question - What is left now for strong-willed leaders with their own independent political base inside Modi's new BJP? This video is a mirror of Modi's personality. By calling Nitin Nabin "Boss", he is reassuring his own ego about how much discomfort it would cause him to call someone like "Sanjay Joshi" or "Nitin Gadkari" his boss. After becoming PM, Modi has not allowed any strong personality to occupy any important position. The new national president didn't even have enough political ground to be counted among the country's 10,000 important leaders. He has made such Chief Ministers in BJP who had no political ground of their own, who will appear insignificant in front of Modi for decades. Even for the post of President, he searched and placed such people that Modi appears as the only big leader in front of them," the AAP leader posted.