It is election time and Delhi votes on February 5, 2025, to create a Government. Public memory is short; therefore let us go back to February 2020 to explore four reasons why Delhi should emphatically vote out the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Firstly, the AAP model of winning elections is by exploiting violence for electoral gains. The horrific Delhi Riots 2020 were engineered with the aim of winning elections in Delhi with AAP cadre allegedly involved in riots. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) uses street-level violence as a tactic to sway elections.
In February 2020, the national Capital witnessed riot-like situations, with communities being pitted against one another. Secondly, many parties have subsequently given election tickets to individuals who were involved in the 2020 violence. This not only undermines the idea of justice but also sends a troubling message that divisive and disruptive behaviour is tolerated and even rewarded. Thirdly, to retain power, AAP has displayed a pattern of promoting division among communities. Farmers’ protests, for instance, were started by a network of Urban Naxals to amplify regional and societal divides. These Urban Naxals form the backbone of the AAP. Such politics of polarisation hinder progress and foster mistrust among citizens.
Using Riots to Win Polls
Before the Delhi Elections 2020, the anti-CAA protests were reportedly orchestrated by the AAP . A data collected from the ground reveals that protest sites against an Indian Government policy, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) systematically established in Delhi since mid- December 2019 were far from peaceful. AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan was accused of inciting violence during protests. He was also registered in an FIR over charges of sharing an objectionable post against the CAA on social media. Additionally, AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal spoke out against the CAA and NRC, and the party organised several protests and rallies. Many of these statements were almost hate speeches. There were a total of 13 cases of rioting registered against anti-CAA protesters in the Central, Southern and Eastern ranges of Delhi. Of these, seven cases of rioting and violence against anti-CAA protesters were registered in the Eastern range itself. This was between December 16 and 20, 2019. The riot affected North East Delhi falls within this range. The locus of most of these rioting incidents by anti-CAA protesters was road number 66 connecting the GT Road and the Wazirabad road which is Jaffrabad.
On December 17, 2019, there were clashes between the Delhi Police and anti-CAA protesters on the Seelampur-Jaffrabad stretch. After tear gassing, local leaders made several rounds of intense appeals to the crowd which subsequently dispersed. The Delhi Police responded by appealing to local leaders of the area to help maintain peace on this day that was also a Friday, which is an obligatory day of worship for the Muslims.
In preparation for the upcoming Friday on December 20, 2019, the Delhi Police held several meetings with local leaders of all masjids in the area. After Namaz on that day, a crowd of almost 40,000 persons descended on the roads of Jaffrabad sloganeering against the CAA and making calls for Azadi. The local leaders of the area again negotiated crowds who were now gathered in front of the Police station. The crowd remained agitated till around 2 a.m. in the morning. It is noteworthy that in the same time period, anti-CAA protesters resorted to violence in Central and Southern Police ranges; such cases have been reported in December 2019.
Thus North-East Delhi, and particularly the Jaffrabad –Wazirpur road, more specifically the 66 foot road was an area that was violent much before February 23, 2020. The immensely provocative act of blocking an arterial road connecting a population of 25 lakhs approximately from outside was again done by anti-CAA protesters in the intervening night between February 22 and 23, 2020. A violent crowd of stone-pelters were already on the roads by the afternoon of February 23, 2020. By night the violence had intensified.
Common citizens in North East Delhi faced violent street riots for four days between February 23 to 26, 2020. For the first two days, Hindus were burnt, maimed and killed. During the 2020 Delhi riots, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer named Ankit Sharma was found dead in the riot-hit Chand Bagh area of northeast Delhi. Sharma’s body was discovered on February 26, 2020, and was taken to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital for an autopsy. According to the post-mortem report, Sharma sustained 51 sharp and blunt injuries, including 12 stab wounds. He was specifically targeted by a mob led by Tahir Hussain, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor, who was later arrested along with nine others in connection with the murder.
The cases of Vinod Kashyap, whose dead body was dragged on the streets by his killers, and Dinesh Khatik, who was shot dead in a sniper type attack, are tragic examples. Around February 25, 2020, street riots turned communal with the Hindus turning to self- defence and preservation. The Delhi Police came into action immediately and tragically some of them faced intense violence. Head Constable Rattan Lal was lynched to death and DCP Amit Sharma escaped death by sheer luck.
After it formed the Government in Delhi, AAP set its eyes on the Punjab elections. The farmers’ protest, which began in August 2020 and lasted until December 2021, saw a significant escalation on January 26, 2021, when violence erupted on the streets of Delhi during the Republic Day’s tractor rally. Once again the Delhi Police played a stellar role facing violence but using minimum force to maintain law and order. This incident marked a troubling moment, raising questions about the role of political forces in influencing such events. The AAP initiated and leveraged the unrest to gain political mileage, especially in Punjab, where the protest held significant resonance. Their subsequent victory in the 2022 Punjab elections demonstrated how they capitalised on the sentiment of discontent, further fueling concerns about their reliance on divisive tactics to consolidate power. The AAP tried to repeat the same thing in 2024 in the second farm protests which started in February 2024. The tactic they employed has been to infiltrate protests and hijack policy issues to gain political power.
Tickets to Delhi Riots Accused
The AAP model is now being followed by other parties. In the Delhi Elections 2025, Tahir Hussain, who was in AAP and is an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots, has been fielded by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) as its candidate from the Mustafabad constituency for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Hussain, a former Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillor, had officially joined AIMIM along with his family members and supporters.
For years, the Congress Party allowed illegal immigration of Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam with the sole aim of using them as a vote bank. Now the same pattern is being repeated by the AAP which has been accused of providing fake Aadhar and Voter Id cards to Rohingyas in Delhi with the sole aim of winning elections on a Muslim card.
Along with this openly anti-national tactic of allowing illegal immigrants to flood the city and endanger common citizens, AAP has left no stone unturned to cause a rift between communities.
Links with Deep State
The Aam Aadmi Party is at the centre of a long list of Deep State operatives who have systematically employed Information Warfare against Bharat by the use of misinformation, disinformation and psychological warfare. They have used all these ways to influence election results with international networks.
Thus after ten years of forming the Government in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party has ensured that the common citizen of Delhi is unsafe even in his house as was seen in the case of the Delhi Riots 2020.
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