Protest against AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal over ‘Priest and Granthi Samman Yojana’

New Delhi: When AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal announced the ‘Pujari & Granthi Samman Yojana’ outside the Hanuman temple on Baba Kharak Singh Marg in Delhi, BJP members demonstrated against him, saying that no Brahmins would fall for his “dissembling.”

“AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal hasn’t thought about the Brahmins in the last ten years. Every announcement he makes is false. He has his government in Punjab, but he hasn’t contributed a dime. In this case, he promised 18,000 but would not provide 18 paise. “No Brahmins will fall for his deception,” a BJP member said.

Opposition parties, especially the BJP, have sharply criticized the ‘Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana’ for its timing, which came ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. The scheme provides priests of temples and ‘granthis’ of Gurudwaras with an honorarium of approximately Rs 18,000 per month.

Bansuri Swaraj, a BJP member of the Lok Sabha, also attacked Kejriwal, saying the plan was designed to win over people before the next elections.

During a news conference, Swaraj announced that Arvind Kejriwal has launched a new appeasement strategy known as “Arvind’s appeasement.” Instead of waiting for the elections to be done, she further asked the Delhi administration to put the plan into action right away.

“Although election slogans have been discussed extensively, Arvind Kejriwal has introduced a fresh wave of election-related tactics. For 17 months, Imams and Maulvis have not received their wages from Kejriwal’s administration. He began a new kind of appeasement politics in which he promised to pay wages to priests and granthis, but he failed to address the issues facing Imams and Maulvis. Why are you waiting for the elections when there isn’t an election model code of conduct yet? They refused to respect ‘Pujaris,’ sacred sites, or ‘Granthis,’ for ten years, and now, as the election draws nearer, they are attempting to curry favor with them in order to get votes,” she claimed.

However, on Tuesday, Arvind Kejriwal opened the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana registration. To begin the registration process for the program, he and his spouse, Sunita Kejriwal, went to the Shri Marghat Wale Baba Mandir at Kashmere Gate.