Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal
The AAP on Thursday accused the BJP-led NDA government of "discriminating" between students on religious grounds by announcing its scheme of providing scholarships to five crore Muslim students over the next five years.
"With Muslim-only scholarship, the Bharatiya Janata Party is continuing appeasement policy of the Congress party. Divisive language used by BJP leaders during election campaign and behaviour post-election reeks of hypocrisy," Singh said at a press conference.
He said while the Aam Aadmi Party welcomed the fact that the government's attention has been drawn to Muslim students, it does not support religious discrimination.
"The Muslim scholarship is being publicised by the government with great fanfare. The AAP welcomes the fact that the NDA government's attention has been drawn to Muslim students. But the question is why discriminate between students on religious grounds? How is this different from the same appeasement politics that BJP used to accuse the Congress of indulging in?
"Aam Aadmi Party demands that all students, regardless of the community they belong to, should be given scholarships for education. Such schemes should not be on religious grounds alone," he said.
Referring to the BJP's campaign in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls this year, Singh said, "We all remember the kind of language used by the prime minister, his party and it's leaders in the run-up to the election against minorities in the country.
The sharp distinction between then and now is clearly visible to the people of the country. The BJP's hypocrisy on the issue stands exposed."
