Pro-Afzal Guru parents and old “Islamophobic” post

Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has attacked newly appointed Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, even though both belong to the same political party led by Arvind Kejriwal.

Maliwal has accused Atishi's parents of having close relations with former Delhi University professor Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, who was allegedly involved in the 2001 Parliament attack but was later acquitted of the charges.

She further claimed that Atishi's parents were present on stage with Geelani at a press club event in 2016. The event was in memory of Afzal Guru, who was hanged after his conviction in the Parliament attack case.

Maliwal claimed that slogans like “Ek Afzal Maaroge to Lakhon Afzal paid Honge' (If you kill one Afzal, hundreds of thousands will be born from him) and 'Kashmir Maange Azadi' (Kashmir demands freedom) were addressed at the event.

She also claimed that Atishi's parents had written articles like 'Arrest and Torture of Syed Geelani' to defend Geelani when he was detained for some time in the Parliament attack case.

“A woman like Atishi becomes the Chief Minister of Delhi, whose own family fought for a long time to save terrorist Afzal Guru from the death penalty,” Maliwal said in a video message.

“Her parents have written several clemency petitions to the President, stating that he is innocent, that he should not be hanged and that he is the victim of a political conspiracy,” she added.

Maliwal also released a video clip of Atishi's mother Tripta Wahi saying, “We are unhappy that Afzal has been made a scapegoat according to our political understanding,” along with photos of her parents' mercy plea to the President.

Meanwhile, a four-year-old X-post (then Twitter) by Atishi has gone viral, in which she calls for tough action against the Nizamuddin Markaz administration during the Covid pandemic.

They had organised a three-day religious gathering with thousands of people from March 13 to 15, even though the Delhi government had explicitly banned gatherings of more than 200 people on March 13 itself, Atishi said.

In March 2020, the Covid pandemic began in India and given the government's efforts to stop the spread of the virus in the country, a large gathering of Markaz was seen as threatening.

Many social media users perceive Atishi's call for action against Nizamuddin Markaz as Islamophobia and accuse her of allying herself with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which takes a similar stance.