Delhi Election | Shaheen Bagh a hotbed of anti-national activities, protesters being lured with biryani: BJP's Tajinder Singh Bagga

This election, the BJP sprung a surprise, giving a ticket to a firebrand nationalist who many refer to as a social media “troll”. Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga will be contesting from Hari Nagar constituency in West Delhi, come February 8.

Bagga, 34, who is extremely proactive on Twitter and wears his patriotism on his sleeve, is possibly the youngest BJP candidate from Delhi.  He was made BJP spokesperson in 2017.

He had first come to limelight for attacking lawyer-activist and then AAP member Prashant Bhushan for his views on Kashmir.

A resident of Delhi, he had even defied (in spirit, if not in letter) a Supreme Court order to ban the sale of firecrackers in 2017 when the national capital was reeling with toxic air quality. “I will distribute crackers among children living in Subhash Nagar and Khajan Basti tomorrow. After all, Diwali is a festival children wait for the entire year to burst crackers and enjoy,” Bagga had said.

In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, he opened up about various issues ahead of the all-important Capital contest:

When asked about what he would like to do for Hari Nagar constituency, if voted to power, Bagga said, “I wanted to do something different. We decided that Hari Nagar will be Delhi’s first constituency to have its own manifesto.”

“Pollution is the biggest issue facing Delhi. Gautam Gambhir (BJP MP from East Delhi) has set up a smog tower in Lajpat Nagar, and the AQI level reduced from 500-600 to 70-80. Our first promise is that we set up a smog tower in Hari Nagar within the first 60 days and make it pollution free,” Bagga asserted.

Other promises include proper waste disposal, better roads (gaddha-mukt vidhan sabha), better street-lighting in the constituency and security for women, which includes self-defence for girls.

When the BJP released the first list of candidates for the Delhi election, Bagga’s name had not featured in it, which had led to him being trolled massively on Twitter. We asked him about reports that he wanted to contest from Tilak Nagar, but was given a ticket from Hari Nagar instead:

“The party takes a decision on who should get a ticket from which constituency. I respect the party’s decision. And even if I had not gotten a ticket, I would still be working the same way that I have been,” he said.

On asking him about his growth trajectory from a social media influencer to a potential representative of the public, Bagga said he never intended to be an “influencer” and that people follow him on social media because of his work.

“I have been an active member of the BJP for the last 18 years. I am 34 years old now, and have held some or the other post in the party. I joined the BJP when I was 16 and started working at the block level. In 2007, I became the youngest national member of the BJP Youth. When I was made the spokesperson in 2017, I was the youngest spokesperson in Delhi BJP. So it’s not that I am just a social media influencer, social media is a tool that we use to tell the people about our work,” Bagga said.

The young leader, who is going to be contesting from a Sikh-dominated constituency, said there’s more to him than social media. Bagga told Moneycontrol, “For instance, when the NIT incident happened in Kashmir, the Tiranga was snatched away from students, I took 200 of my people to Kashmir. We were apprehended in Jammu, but we wore a disguise and went again from Amritsar, reached NIT Srinagar and unfurled the Tiranga.”

Not only this, Bagga has staged sit-ins and hunger strikes for an inquiry into the 1984 riots as well as for women’s issues, including reducing the age of a juvenile vis-à-vis the Nirbhaya case, and getting acid attacks on women under the ambit of ‘serious crimes’.

When asked about the ongoing anti-Citizenship Act protests at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, Bagga said:

“Whatever is happening in Shaheen Bagh, everyone knows it’s a paid protest. The people are being mobilised by distributing Rs 500 each, and are being tempted by biryani (500 rupay dekar aur biryani ke lalach se bheed bulaayi jaa rhe hai)”.

He expressed his ire at the slogans he claims are being raised there – ‘Jinnah waali azaadi’, ‘Free Kashmir’, cutting of Assam from India, what Sharjeel Imam said.

“Shaheen Bagh is a hotbed of anti-national activities (desh-droh ka adda ban gaya hai). People are talking about dividing India over there. There are reports from the IB that these people are being funded by PFI,” Bagga said.

Reiterating Home Minister Amit Shah’s words that CAA will not be withdrawn at any cost, Bagga said, “If people think that by creating undue pressure, they’ll make the government bow down to their demands, then they are wrong.”

On being asked what the BJP dispensation will do differently if it comes to powers, Bagga told Moneycontrol, “We will take action against every person who is raising slogans against the country within 24 hours – be it Kanhaiya, Sharjeel Imam or anybody else.”

Bagga has also been part of an outfit called the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, which describes itself as a “task force against traitors, anti-nationals and corrupts (sic)”. His organisation has claimed responsibility for attacking Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, as well as defacing the walls around Pakistan High Commission by putting up posters demanding freedom from Balochistan.

We asked him his views on the Tukde Tukde Gang (TTG). He said:

“TTG is that which talks about breaking/dividing India; TTG is that which says Assam be cut off from India; TTG is that which says ‘Bharat tere tukde honge, Inshallah Inshallah’. People who say 26/11 Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab was innocent and that he should not have been hanged; people who say that there should be a referendum in Kashmir, belong to the TTG. These are all urban Naxals.”

On being asked about his unapologetic social media posts, which has led to his critics and the Opposition branding him as a “troll”, Bagga said:

“I don’t care what the Opposition says to me. The opposition hurls abuses at you only when the work done by you hurts them. Or, you are exposing them. This is the same opposition which has called PM Modi ‘maut ka saudagar’, ‘cockroach’, ‘naali ka keeda’, ‘gadha’. Compared to that, I have not been called any names. So, I don’t care. The more they call me names, the stronger I get.”

A story published by The Indian Express has claimed that his incendiary posts have been removed so as to cleanse his Twitter timeline.

Tajinder Singh Bagga will be contesting from the Hari Nagar seat against AAP’s Rajkumari Dhillon and Congress’ Surinder Setia.