Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament (MP), Sanjay Singh, criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, attributing a staggering 94 per cent increase in communal violence cases nationwide since 2019 to the ruling party.
Singh asserted that the rise in communal incidents was a consequence of the “provocative and hateful speeches” made by leaders of the ruling party.
“When we compare the incidents of communal violence from 2019 to 2024, there is an alarming rise of 94 per cent. So why is communal violence on the rise? It is because you (BJP leaders) engage in inciting rhetoric. Your associates partake in hateful discourse,” Singh stated during the session of Parliament.
The AAP leader alluded to the recent unrest in Nagpur concerning the 18th-century burial site of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and the escalating disputes between temples and mosques across the nation.
“While the world is advancing towards development, you are fostering hatred within the country,” Singh asserted while engaging in a debate regarding the operations of the Home Ministry. He accused leaders in power of suggesting they might harm government-protected Mughal-era monuments.
What transpired in Nagpur?
Violence erupted in central Nagpur on Monday, resulting in stones being thrown at police amid allegations that a sacred text of a specific community was set ablaze during protests led by a right-wing group demanding the removal of the 17th-century tomb of Aurangzeb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.
The Nagpur Police arrested nine more individuals on Thursday in connection with the March 17 conflicts, increasing the total number of arrests to over 100.
Thirty-three police officers, including three at the Deputy Commissioner of Police rank, sustained injuries during the unrest. Police have charged Fahim Khan, the main suspect in the incident, along with five others, with sedition and spreading false information on social media. A curfew was lifted or eased in parts of the city three days after the violent outbreak.
Earlier, the vice-president and chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, extended birthday wishes to Sanjay Singh.
Critique of BJP’s ‘double-engine’ government
Singh also mocked the BJP over its “double-engine” governance narrative. He pointed out that while law and order is primarily a state issue, if it occurs in a BJP-ruled state, then the party bears double responsibility for maintaining peace.
Referencing data from the National Crime Record Bureau, the AAP MP claimed there has been an uptick in criminal activities in recent years in states that have “double-engine governments”.
Singh provided data indicating that the BJP-governed Haryana recorded more criminal incidents than Punjab, despite having a larger population compared to the AAP-governed border state.
“While the world is moving towards progress, you are instigating animosity in the country,” he reiterated.
“In Uttar Pradesh, there were 657,925 cases reported in 2020, 680,082 in 2021, and 753,675 in 2022,” Singh noted, adding that similar patterns were observed in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in Delhi.
