The BJP leadership does not tire from making controversial and anti-Muslim statements. The incidents have although, increased in recent times. Recently, BJP MP from West Delhi, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma said that the mosques that are built on government lands in Delhi will be razed if BJP comes to power in Delhi.
He had posted the following tweet on January 18:
दिल्ली में भाजपा की सरकार बनते ही सरकारी जमीनों पर बने धार्मिक स्थलों को सरकारी जमीन से खाली कराया जाएगा ।दिल्ली में 54 से ज़्यादा मस्जिद, मदरसे सरकारी जमीन पर बने होने की शिकायत अभी तक आई है। सूची दिल्ली के उपराज्यपाल को पहले ही दी जा चुकी है।#PTI
— Parvesh Sahib Singh (@p_sahibsingh) January 18, 2020
(translation: “The government land on which religious places are constructed will be vacated after BJP forms government in Delhi. Complaints have come regarding more than 54 mosques and madrassas on government land in Delhi. The list has already been given to the Lt Governor.”
Later at a press conference he said that if temples and gurudwaras are also found on government land, he is ready to take up the matter with authorities. But subsequently he made a rather bizarre claim saying, “no temple or gurudwara are found on government land, only mosques are found on government land”.
Last year in June, he had taken up this matter with Delhi’s LG Anil Baijal and had furnished list of 50 cases of encroachment on government land by mosques. However, when Delhi Minorities Commission looked into the matter by forming a fact-finding committee, it found out that Verma’s claims were all false.
Our take: It’s hard to say whether this is an appeasement tactic for Hindus or another method of increasing the fear psychosis in the Muslim community in Delhi. Either ways it is a patently divisive tactic that aims at creating a communal atmosphere and feed into fake pride and ‘nationalism’ of supremacist forces.