Asserting that insults based on caste and religious identity are intolerable, Delhi State Coordinator and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Gopal Rai on Wednesday condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly calling a Sikh IPS officer stationed in West Bengal as a “Khalistani” and demanded them to apologise publicly for their derogatory remarks.
Addressing the media, Rai said, “Aam Aadmi Party strongly condemned the behaviour of BJP leaders and demands BJP leaders to apologize publicly for this incident. India will never tolerate such insults based on caste, religion, or language,” he said.
“BJP leaders have insulted the IPS officer deployed on duty in Bengal by labelling him a Khalistani. They publicly referred to that IPS officer as a Khalistani simply because he was born into a Sikh family and wears a turban. This demonstrates the ideology of hatred that pervades among BJP leaders from top to bottom,” the Minister said.
The Minister further added, “There is a long history of respecting the Sikh religion within India. In this country, Punjabis are at the forefront of the list of martyrs. In such a scenario, today, due to the arrogance of power, BJP leaders have been granted the authority to distribute certificates to everyone in the country. For them, anyone becomes a traitor, terrorist, Khalistani, or Naxalite,” he said.
A Sikh IPS officer, deployed in Sandeshkhali to prevent BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari from visiting the tense area of Sandeshkali in the North 24 Parganas district, criticized BJP leaders on Tuesday for allegedly calling him a ‘Khalistani’.
