‘They will enter your homes, rape sisters’: BJP lawmaker’s shocking Delhi poll pitch – assembly elections

Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Parvesh Verma on Thursday sought to amp up his party’s offensive against the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party over the Shaheen Bagh protests in the national capital.

Verma, who claimed that the government would clear the protesters in a day if the BJP is voted to power in the city government’s February 8 election, asked people of Delhi to think hard before they vote. ”There is still time today,” Verma said.

“Arvind Kejriwal says he is with Shaheen Bagh (protesters). Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also says he is with Shaheen Bagh. The people know that a fire engulfed Kashmir in which their mothers and sisters were raped. This later happened in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Hyderabad,” Verma said, according to ANI.

“Today, that fire has engulfed a corner of Delhi. Lakhs of people gather there (Shaheen Bagh). People of Delhi will have to think hard and take a decision. They will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, and kill them. There’s time today, Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and Amit Shah will not come to save you tomorrow. It will be a lot better if the people of Delhi wake up today,” Verma told news agency ANI.

The controversial remarks by the BJP’s West Delhi MP comes amid a renewed effort by top BJP leaders to keep the narrative ahead of the February 8 elections centered on the protests in Shaheen Bagh against the amended citizenship law. The protesters have demanded that the government scrap the law that grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh if they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Verma has also claimed that the government would clear out the Shaheen Bagh protest site as soon it forms the government in the national capital. He did not explain why the election outcome matters. Delhi Police, which is responsible for law and order as well as traffic in the city, already reports to the Home Ministry at the Centre where the BJP is in power.

According to ANI, Verma told an election meeting at Vikaspuri assembly segment on Monday that he would remove all mosques built on government land in his Lok Sabha constituency if the BJP wins the state election.