Ashish Khetan meets Arvind Kejriwal amid row over his remarks

Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan, under fire for equating the party’s ‘Youth Manifesto’ for Punjab polls with religious books and using the image of Golden Temple on it, today met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal here.

AAP’s Punjab in charge Sanjay Singh and senior leader Ashutosh were also present in the meeting. However, the party maintained that the meeting had got nothing to do with the controversy.

While Khetan has already tendered an apology, saying he did not intend to “undermine any section of the society”, a case was registered against him in Amritsar today for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

When contacted, a senior party leader said the meeting was “informal”. The leader criticised the opposition for “communalising” the issue despite Khetan tendering apology.

“The opposition is just trying to whip up communal sentiments. Khetan has already apologised and the party’s Punjab unit has also done the same,” the leader said.

While Kejriwal, who was recently on a three-day tour of Punjab, has kept mum on the issue, he shared videos of Khetan’s apology on Twitter.

The opposition led by BJP-SAD pounced on AAP after Khetan had reportedly compared the manifesto with “the Bible, Gita and Guru Granth Sahib” to underline the party’s commitment to it during its launch in Amritsar.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had attacked AAP, saying its act amounted to “desecration” of the holy book and sought an apology from AAP chief Kejriwal.