Hindu Group and BJP Ally Slams Delhi Chief for Earmarking Land for Haj House

In 2008, then Delhi Chief Sheila Dikshit proposed a Haj house to accommodate Indian Muslims before they depart on the annual pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca. However, the plan didn't go down well, and a similar idea has been raised recently – again, to much criticism.

Accusing Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal government of indulging in "land jihad," the Vishva Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) has threatened to intensify protests in the Indian capital. The organisation has threatened to stop the Kejriwal administration from using government land to build a so-called Haj house for Muslim pilgrims.

"Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) can do anything for the sake of some Muslim votes. Today, public places are being encroached illegally, and mosques and Mazars are being built. Land jihad is happening in Delhi under Kejriwal’s nose," Vishwa Hindu Parishad's central joint general secretary Dr Surendra Jain said on Wednesday.

Residents in and around Dwarka Sector 22, which is 10 km from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, staged a protest last Friday against the construction of the Haj house in the area.

"The state chief Arvind Kejriwal should give up the idea of Haj house, stop serving the infiltrators and Jihadis and take care of the Hindu society too. Otherwise, the society of the national capital will be forced to come on the streets," Jain threatened. 

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, founded in 1964 with the aim to organise, consolidate, and protect Hindu society, has several right-wing Hindu nationalist groups in its fold. They have been demanding missionaries and Islamic outfits engaged in "religious conversions" be investigated.

Jain argued that the AAP government has done little for Hindus.

“In the last few years, the Delhi government has made an unprecedented record in appeasing Muslims, advocating for terrorists, attacking Hindu's honour...It seems Delhi is sitting at the mouth of the volcano of radical Islamic terrorism,” he said. 

Meanwhile, AAP slammed the group, saying the BJP has nothing to offer but to keep finding issues that divide Hindu and Muslim.

“Firstly, the land comes under BJP’s DDA (Delhi Development Authority), and Arvind Kejriwal has no power to give any land to anyone in Delhi. The BJP is well aware of the decision and no officials objected to it” an AAP spokesperson told reporters.