Kejriwal campaigns: At Malerkotla, denounces desecration

Visit comes two days after MLA booked in case; SAD, Congress protest

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AAP leaders attend a Roza Iftaar. Express

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday attended an Iftaar party at Malerkotla, which had seen violence after “torn” pages of the holy Quran were found last month.

His visit came two days after his party MLA Naresh Yadav was named in the desecration case.

Addressing the Muslim community, he said, “People who had intended to malign the AAP’s and my image should have adopted other ways.

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They could have thrown ink at me or even assaulted me, why was the holy Quran dishonoured?”

“Some anti-national elements are trying to destabilise the country, but I pray to Allah that they never be successful in their nefarious designs,” he said attending a Roza Iftaar gathering at Hina Haweli.

Kejriwal said ‘a true Hindu would never indulge in desecration of holy book of any religion’

Accompanying him, local Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann said, “Malerkotla is known for its communal harmony but it is astonishing to see how political rivals did not refrain from compromising the peace of this town.”

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“Malerkotla has always stood united and one cheap act cannot destroy the fabric of peace between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of this town,” said Mann.

SAD and Cong protest

Leading the Akali protest was local MLA Farzana Alam and her husband former DGP (prisons) Izhar Alam.

SAD activists clash with police near venue. Express

Carrying black flags and Sikhs wearing black ribbons on turbans, they asked Kejriwal to go back and demanded that his entry be banned in Malerkotla. However, police stopped them before they could reach the venue. Several Congress leaders were also detained in a separate protest.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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