NEW DELHI: Punjab Police’s arrest of BJP leader Tajinder Bagga on Friday triggered a massive confrontation not just between the governments of Punjab and Haryana but also the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP at the Centre.
A spokesperson of the Delhi unit of BJP, Bagga was arrested for some allegedly objectionable tweets against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Bagga’s arrest in the morning had already snowballed into a major political storm by afternoon.
However, this is not the first time that Bagga finds himself at the midst of a political storm.
Here is a look at some of the major rows centred around the controversial BJP leader:
Assault on Prashant Bhushan
An attack on leading lawyer Prashant Bhushan was one of the first incidents involving Bagga that led to a major row. Bagga, along with an aide, had roughed up Bhushan in his chamber. Bagga claimed that he had resorted to violence over certain remarks made by Bhushan.
After the attack, which left the anti-corruption crusader bruised and battered, Bagga tweeted again, this time exulting, “He try (sic) to break my nation, I try to break his head. Hisab chukta. Congrats to all. Operation Prashant Bhushan successful.”
Bhushan had earlier spoken in favour of plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, according to reports.
Arundhati Roy’s book event
In 2011, Bagga had disrupted an event of author Arundhati Roy in Delhi’s swanky India Habitat Centre. The rabble rouser had claimed it was to protest Roy’s views on Kashmir. Apparently proud of his action, Bagga had also tweeted a picture of himself standing on the stage and pointing a finger at Roy.
Old Memories with Arundhati Roy, whn she was Barking on Kashmir https://t.co/dNA8vcl3zS— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) 1535655990000
Selling tea outside Congress headquarters
Another occassion when Bagga found himself hogging the limelight was when he “sold” tea outside a Congress meeting to protest its leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks against Narendra Modi.
Tajinder Pal Bagga selling Tea outside #AICCMeet as a mark of protest against Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remark on Modi http://t.co/QDacXG1v6T— ANI (@ANI) 1389958231000
BJP candidate from Delhi’s Hari Nagar
Bagga, who is in his thirties, bagged the BJP ticket for the Delhi assembly elections from Hari Nagar. His educational qualifications attracted a lot of attention.
According to news reports that referred to his election affidavit, Bagga, a school dropout, has a diploma in ‘National Development Course’ from National Defence University in China.
Bagga, who was made Delhi BJP spokesperson in 2017, mentioned in the affidavit that he was pursuing Bachelor Preparatory Programme from IGNOU, news reports said. This programme is offered by the university to students who wish to do a bachelor’s degree from IGNOU but do not have the essential qualification of having passed Class 12.
Bagga had also attracted a lot of attention with his declaration that he will set up a smog tower in the constituency.
Twitter battles
While Bagga has been an active and aggressive BJP worker on the streets and on social media, many opponents have called him a Twitter troll. He has 920,000 folllowers on Twitter. In recent days, Bagga had relentlessly tweeted against Kejriwal and some of the tweets apparently led him to trouble.
However, with the BJP backing its worker, a long political battle is waiting to be fought, with Bagga yet again in the eye of the storm.
