Shazia takes on ex-army chief

AAP candidate Shazia Ilmi Monday took on the BJP for giving a Lok Sabha ticket to former army chief Gen. V.K. Singh, saying it had set a wrong precedent.

Ilmi said that although every citizen has a right to get involved in active politics after retirement, the way the Bharatiya Janata Party was projecting Singh "is posing a dangerous trend".

"We have seen the fate of Pakistan... and the BJP is encouraging such trends in India for its narrow political aims," the Aam Aadmi Party leader told the media here.

Ilmi, who narrowly lost the Delhi assembly election, also challenged other candidates in Ghaziabad for an open debate on national and local issues.

She accused political leaders of amassing wealth while the common people were left to fend for themselves.

"The Aam Aadmi Party has taken up this issue."

Ilmi clarified that the AAP would not discuss caste and religious issues while seeking votes. It would discuss only development issues.

"During my campaigning here, I have seen how Ghaziabad residents are living under miserable conditions. Half of the slum clusters are left with no options but to live on (covered) drains, without electricity, water and sanitation.

"But the local politicians are leading a very affluent life."

Regarding V.K. Singh's comment that the AAP was "anti-national", Ilmi mocked at the former general for forgetting even his date of birth. "What can we expect from him?"

She recalled that he had once published an article in a newspaper praising AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad Bar Association appealed to people to support Ilmi.

Bar association secretary Yogendra Kaushik and president Anil Pandit were among the 200 people who took part in a meeting of lawyers where the appeal was issued.