In a Sharp criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party’s announcement to name Atishi as Chief Minister of Delhi, its Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Tuesday termed it as a “sad day” for Delhi claiming that Atishi’s parents had fought to save convicted terrorist Afzal Guru’s death penalty who was hanged in 2013 for his involvement in 2001 parliament attack.
Taking to social media platform X, she posted, “Today is a very sad day for Delhi. A woman is being made the Chief Minister of Delhi whose family fought a long battle to save terrorist Afzal Guru from the death penalty”.
In the post , she added that, “Atishsi’s parents wrote mercy petitions to the President for saving terrorist Afzal Guru who, according to them, was innocent and trapped in a political conspiracy”.
The MP further mentioned, “Although Atishi will merely act as a ‘Dummy CM’ , this issue is related to national security”. God save the people of Delhi from such a CM, she added.
To prove her point, Maliwal shared on X, the mercy letter written by Atishi’s mother and Delhi University professor Tripta Wahi to the President to stop Afzal Guru’s hanging at that time.
In response to this statement, AAP leader Dilip Pandey told the media that Maliwal reads BJP’s script despite being sent to Rajya Sabha by the AAP.
“Swati Maliwal reached Rajya Sabha on AAP ticket but speaks the language of BJP”. Further, Pandey added, “If she has even a little shame left, she should immediately resign as AAP MP and seek her re-election from BJP”.
Both Maliwal and Atishi were once prominent AAP leaders raising various issues , particularly about women. However, Swati’s relation with AAP took a turn for the worse after she reported that she was assaulted inside the CM’s house by Arvind Kejriwal’s close aide Vibhav Kumar on May 13. The party had initially accepted the allegations but soon changed its stance.
After Maliwal’s allegations in May, Atishi in a press conference then refuted these charges claiming that the BJP orchestrated this assault incident, using Swati Maliwal as a pawn.
However, Vibhav was later arrested in the assault case by Delhi Police and was released on bail earlier this month.