: On Monday afternoon, as a crowd, including journalists, waited outside the Patiala House Courts for the hearing on JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar’s remand proceedings to being, BJP MLA O.P. Sharma also reached the premises, albeit for a different reason.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s defamation case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also scheduled for hearing and the Vishwas Nagar MLA had gone to the court to show solidarity with the senior leader. Suddenly, a scuffle broke out.
A video later surfaced showing Mr. Sharma beating up a CPI worker outside the court’s gate number 4.
The short-tempered BJP MLA, who has been embroiled in many controversies in the past one year, claims to have done nothing. “As I was leaving the court I saw a man raising anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans. I lost my cool, like any patriot, and asked him to shut up. And when I turned, he attacked me with an object.”
Mr Sharma doesn’t know what he was hit with, but the people around him got “offended seeing the MLA being attacked” and started beating up the attacker, read “anti-national”. “The problem of this country at present is that terrorism and being anti-national are considered being progressive. And JNU is promoting this kind of ideology and producing anti-nationals. JNU should be sealed,” Mr. Sharma said. Although there did not seem any visible injury on Mr. Sharma, he said after “mamuli”(minor) first aid at Ram Manohar Lal Hospital, he went home.
Even the Delhi Police despite the video did not arrest the BJP legislator till late Monday evening. Later, an objectionable post slamming the media appeared on a Twitter handle in Mr. Sharma’s name.
Though the post was later deleted and the account deactivated, the BJP MLA maintained that he never had any Twitter handle.
Mr. Sharma, who is known in party circles as OP or Omi, goes back a long way with Mr. Jaitley. BJP insiders say that he has been with Mr. Jaitley since his Delhi University days. “From a kachuri shop to various Reebok showrooms in East Delhi, Mr. Sharma has seen tremendous rise. He has a strong holding within the Delhi BJP,” a source in the party said.
But it isn’t the first time when Mr. Sharma has put the BJP in a vulnerable spot. In August, during an anti-drug drive, a stone was hurled at AAP’s Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba allegedly by a staff working at Mr. Sharma’s sweetshop in Yamuna Bazar, Kashmere Gate. Later, Mr Sharma got into another controversy for his sexist remarks against Ms. Lamba.
He was suspended from the Assembly in the winter session and also penalised for breaking a microphone in the House.
As I was leaving the court, I saw a man raising
anti-India and
pro-Pakistan slogans. I lost my cool, like any patriot, and asked him to shut up
O.P. Sharma,BJP MLA
As I was leaving the court I saw a man raising anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans. I lost my cool, like any patriot, and asked him to shut upO.P. Sharma,BJP MLA
Published - February 16, 2016 12:00 am IST
