AAP Suspends Party Leader Jarnail Singh For His Derogatory Post On Hindu Gods

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday suspended former Rajouri Garden MLA Jarnail Singh from the primary membership of the party for his derogatory post on Hindu goddesses published on Facebook.

After facing backlash on social media, Jarnail Singh deleted the post and claimed that the image was mistakenly published by his son during an online class.

According to BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, the now deleted post insulted Lord Ram, Lord Shankar and Lord Brahma.

The decision to suspend Jarnail Singh was taken in the meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC).

The party in a statement said that it is a secular party and has no place for anyone who disrespects any religion.

“The Sikh community is also very sad with their statement because such misfortune against any community is also against the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Aam Aadmi Party is a secular party and has no place in the party of anyone who disrespects any religion,” the statement added.

The former Rajouri Garden MLA, denied the allegations and said that his son had accidentally pasted a post using the phone for online classes.

"Yesterday, my little son had taken my phone for his online class. He posted an image which I had deleted. I respect all the names of God Ram, Gobind, Keshav, Sadashiv and follow the principles of Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib," his statement claimed

Jarnail Singh, a former journalist, was catapulted to national limelight in 2009 for hurling a slipper at the then union cabinet minister and Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for the party's role in orchestrating 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

In 2014, he was fielded as the AAP candidate the West DelhI Lok Sabha elections from West Delhi but lost to BJP’s Parvesh Verma.

Jarnail Singh was elected an MLA from the Rajouri Garden seat in 2015 Delhi assembly elections.

Jarnail Singh was handpicked by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal to front-end the AAP's electoral foray in to Punjab. After resigning from Delhi assembly in 2017, he contested contest the Punjab assembly polls from against former CM Parkash Singh Badal. AAP, which was optimistic of capturing power in Punjab, finished third in the polls.

Jarnail Singh relationship with AAP leadership deteriorated after he criticised the party for negotiating with Congress for an electoral alliance in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He has been maintaining a low profile for the last few months.