Chandigarh: In a significant development, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashish Khetan has been booked for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The case has been registered under Section 295-A (for hurting religious sentiments) at Civil Lines police station, Amritsar, on the basis of a complaint lodged by All-India Sikh Students’ Federation president Karnail Singh Peermohammad.
Police Commissioner Amar Singh Chehal said the case was registered late last night.
On July 3, Khetan, AAP’s spokesperson and head of the Delhi Dialogue Commission of the party, had allegedly equated AAP’s ‘51-Point Youth Manifesto’ with Guru Granth Sahib, the Bible and the Quran in a bid to establish it as a ‘true’ commitment towards the youth, if voted to power.
The complainant, Peermohammad, had announced last evening that they had given the AAP a three-day period to submit a public apology for the “blasphemous act”, otherwise, “criminal proceedings" would be initiated against Khaitan.
Interestingly, Khetan was booked hours after he submitted a public apology for his ‘unintentional’ move to refer the party manifesto as holy book. Even the AAP’s top brass and the Chairperson of Punjab Dialogue Committee, which had prepared the youth manifesto, had apologised and assured to change the manifesto cover that had the AAP symbol, the “broom”, on the photo of the Golden Temple.
AAP leader HS Phoolka on Wednesday said to apologize for the party's "unintentional mistake" of putting up a picture of the Golden Temple on it youth manifesto, he would participate in a 'sewa' on the weekend. He also made an appeal to party volunteers to do the same.
Meanwhile, party's Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur accused the Badals of politicizing the sensitive issue. "Since AAP leader Ashish Khetan has already apologized for his 'inadvertent act' and Sikh panth believes in 'forgiveness', opposition parties should be cautious of politicizing it to disturb the communal harmony in the state," he said.
"The Delhi team of the AAP may not be well versed with the religious sensibilities of the people of the state and inadvertently committed a mistake. It later apologized for the same. I believe penance by performing sewa and apologizing at the Golden Temple should be done. I have put out a message in this regard to the party volunteers. For all of us, the respect of Darbar Sahib is paramount," Phoolka said adding that he has got several calls and messages from volunteers from across the country, besides Canada and US, pointing out that the picture should not have been used.
Chhotepur added that it was unfortunate that Khetan inadvertently compared the party's youth manifesto with Guru Granth Sahib and later on Khetan submitted his apology. "Sikhism believes in forgiveness and earlier also it pardoned many serious mistakes", he said.
He said, "During the campaign for the last Lok Sabha elections, while getting overboard of 'sycophancy' Punjab cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia desecrated the "Gurbani" in praise of Arun Jaitley. He later submitted an apology and the Sikh Panth had pardoned him."
"Opposition parties are deliberately politicizing this issue. Instead they should fight us politically. Even CM Parkash Singh Badal had committed a blunder by terming him "Bahadur" in comparison with Baba Banda Singh Bahadur," Chhotepur said adding that even PPCC chief Amarinder Singh had also committed a religious mistake by taking oath with 'Gutka' in his hand while wearing shoes at Bathinda during his coronation ceremony.
"Head of the manifesto committee Kanwar Sandhu and Khetan also submitted an apology for publishing mistakes on the front page of the youth manifesto of AAP," said Chhotepur.
