Journalism of Courage
The Delhi BJP on Saturday wrote to Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena asking that Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal be suspended from her post till the completion of a police inquiry into the events leading up to the “alleged eve-teasing” incident against her following reports that the accused is “an Aam Aadmi Party worker”. The incident in question allegedly took place outside the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on the intervening night of January 18 and 19.
The BJP’s Delhi unit had taken to Twitter to allege that the AAP and a Hindi news channel had teamed up to execute “an alleged sting operation” aimed at demotivating and defaming the Delhi Police, but had failed because of swift police action leading to the arrest of the accused driver on charges of molestation and voluntarily causing hurt.
Early on Saturday, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor wrote to L-G Saxena asking that Maliwal be sacked till the police inquired into the events around it. “Sir all and one condemned the incident and it was satisfying to note that Delhi Police acted swiftly after the incident and arrested the alleged eveteaser within an hour but media reports on this indicate that the eveteaser involved, Harish Chandra Suryavanshi, is an active worker of Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party from Sangam Vihar,” Kapoor stated.
“There are photographs of Harsh Chandra Suryavanshi campaigning with Aam Aadmi Party’s MLA Prakash Jarwal. Sir this matter now stands complicated and it appears that the incident was a conspiracy with a motive of painting the image of Delhi as an unsafe city for women,” Kapoor also stated.
“Sir I therefore request you as Administrator of Delhi to look into the matter and suspend Ms. Swati Maliwal from the post…till the inquiry of alleged eveteasing incident gets completed so that she can’t misuse her position to influence police inquiry,” Kapoor demanded.
After video footage of the incident involving Maliwal emerged on Friday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal used it to target L-G Saxena, with whom he has been locking horns for months now. Kejriwal asked the L-G to concentrate on fixing the law-and-order situation in the city instead of interfering in the functioning of the AAP government, even as the BJP called the incident “a dirty conspiracy” hatched by Maliwal and a Hindi news channel to “demotivate and defame” the Delhi Police.
Following the incident, Maliwal had tweeted: “Last night, I was inspecting the situation of women’s security in Delhi. A car driver, in an inebriated state, molested me and when I caught hold of him, he locked my hand in the car window and dragged me. God saved my life…If the Chairperson of the Women’s Commission is not safe in Delhi, then imagine the situation.”
On Friday evening, however, pictures of the accused Harish Chandra alongside Deoli AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal were shared widely by BJP leaders on social media questioning the links between the two and the veracity of the incident involving Maliwal as a result of the connection.
The police’s swift action, the BJP alleged, had exposed the “dirty conspiracy and false operation”. Delhi BJP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi tweeted that the sting “raises serious questions on the ethics” involved. “Is petty politics on an issue as serious as women’s safety justified?” she asked.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana questioned Maliwal’s silence on the incident for 48 hours. While the police were inquiring into the matter, the connection of the accused with the AAP MLA had “exposed Ms Swati Maliwal” and she was expected to “try her best to influence the police inquiry in the matter by using her constitutional office”, he argued.
A former engineer who became a part of the Anna Hazare movement soon after it was launched in the year 2012, Maliwal has been vocal on various issues related to women’s safety both in Delhi and beyond. She has led various “raids” in the red light district of GB Road, in addition to being instrumental in laying the foundation of rules of conduct framed by the Delhi government in relation to spas in the city.
Recently, Maliwal had questioned the involvement of Bollywood director Sajid Khan, accused of sexual misconduct, as a contestant on the Hindi reality television show Bigg Boss.
