AAP wants to take political advantage of Ravidas Mandir issue and provoke people, alleges BJP leader Vijender Gupta

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijender Gupta on Thursday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders of trying to take political advantage of the Ravidas temple issue and provoke people. [caption id=“attachment_4366357” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP leader Vijender Gupta. News18[/caption] “AAP is playing politics in this matter. Rather than building the temple, AAP leaders want to deviate the matter by shouting in the Delhi Assembly. We wanted the facts to come to everybody’s knowledge within the Assembly. A temple should be built there, this is our demand. We want that a decision should be taken in this matter as soon as possible”, Gupta told ANI. “I condemn how AAP and its leaders are distorting facts, shouting in Assembly and doing drama… They are not looking forward to making a road map for the construction of the temple. They only want to take political benefit and provoke people. We strongly condemn this thinking of AAP and its leaders”, he added. Speaking in the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “The Centre should pass an ordinance immediately and allot 4-5 acres of land to Ravidas community. If they allot this land, then Delhi government will get Ravidas temple constructed on that land”. Kejriwal said he was saddened to see that the matter was being a subject of petty politics. “Around 12-15 crore people are from the Ravidas community and want the Centre to allot the land. If they give the land to us for the construction of the temple, we will give the Centre 100 acres of forest land”, he said. “We need to rise beyond petty politics and look at this issue seriously. The Centre deliberately did not present facts in the Supreme Court and ordered the destruction of the temple. The Supreme Court should review this matter”, the chief minister added. As Kejriwal was speaking, the Assembly witnessed chaos after BJP legislators OP Sharma and Vijender Gupta tried to interrupt the chief minister’s speech. Subsequently, they were marshalled out of the House. On 10 August, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had demolished the centuries-old temple in Tughlaqabad village under a Supreme Court order. Following the razing of the temple, several political outfits and devotees took to the streets across the country to protest against the act. On Monday, the Supreme Court warned against politicising the demolition of the temple. The top court also threatened to initiate the contempt proceedings against those provoking ‘dharnas’ and demonstrations.