New Delhi: Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Saturday alleged that BJP was orchestrating a campaign to strip livelihoods from families in Purvanchal in Delhi, while East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari accused him of dividing the city along caste and religious lines and promoting regionalism.
Referring to an order issued by MCD’s commissioner to the education wing to identify children of illegal Bangladeshi migrants studying in municipal schools or taking admission, Singh alleged that the move targeted Purvanchalis under the guise of preventative measures. Tiwari, however, accused Singh of misleading and said there was no mention of Purvanchal in the order.
Addressing a press conference, Singh alleged that the order was specifically designed to humiliate children and families from Purvanchal. He said the order also asked all municipal zones to remove encroachments made by illegal Bangladeshi migrants and directed the public health department to ensure they were not issued birth certificates.
“These directives have been pushed through MCD to ruin homes of people from UP and Bihar. The orders blatantly target Purvanchalis under the guise of preventative measures,” Singh alleged.
The AAP MP charged that BJP was displaying its “hateful mindset” towards people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. “They are planning to harass their children, demolish their homes and shops, and run bulldozers over their livelihoods,” Singh charged. “Stop insulting the people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by calling them Bangladeshis,” he added.
Singh alleged that BJP was using the excuse of an ‘anti-encroachment drive’ to displace shopkeepers and street vendors from UP and Bihar and was targeting residents of unauthorised colonies and jhuggis clusters, most of whom were from the Purvanchal region. “Even school children from Purvanchal are not spared. They are being subjected to humiliation through such discriminatory measures,” he claimed further.
Singh said home minister Amit Shah and union minister Hardeep Puri exactly knew where the illegal migrants were settled. “They settled them in Bakkarwala, in the EWS colonies. If BJP genuinely wanted to take action against illegal migrants, they should start there.”
Accusing AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh of disrespecting the Purvanchal community, Tiwari said their concern for people from that region was “pretentious”. “They should issue a clear response within 24 hours on whether votes of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators in Delhi should be removed or not,” Tiwari said.
The BJP MP accused AAP govt of worsening living conditions in unauthorised colonies over the past decade where 70% of residents were from Purvanchal and Uttarakhand. Despite this, AAP failed to address their concerns, he claimed.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva alleged that Kejriwal called the Purvanchali community freeloaders in 2019 and during the Covid-19 pandemic, they were packed into buses and forced to leave the city.
Leader of Opposition in MCD Raja Iqbal Singh claimed it was AAP which governed the corporation and it was impossible for BJP to be involved in any such decisions. “Rather, it is AAP which is behind any such activities. They have the habit of spreading lies. Moreover, the order nowhere specifies names of Purvanchalis anywhere.”
