Actor and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Paresh Rawal remarked at a recent poll rally in Gujarat that the residents of the state could tolerate inflation, but not Rohingya migrants living next door, Desh Gujarat reported.
He also asked whether people would “cook fish for the Bengalis” with their gas connections. Rawal made the statement while campaigning for the BJP in the city of Valsad.
“If gas cylinders get expensive, they will become cheaper again,” the former BJP MP from the Ahmedabad East constituency said. “If inflation goes up, it will come down. People will get employment too. But what if Rohingya migrants and Bangladeshis start living around you, like in Delhi?”
Rawal further said: “What will you do with the gas cylinders? First cook fish for the Bengalis?”
The actor-turned politician also criticised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for offering “freebies” to the residents of Gujarat. “People queue up to offer donations here, and you offer lollipops of freebies to them?” he remarked.
“He [Kejriwal] comes here in a private plane, and then travels in an autorickshaw for show,” Rawal said. “We have spent our lives in acting, but we have not seen such nautanki [drama].”
The BJP leader accused the Aam Aadmi Party chief of “distributing biryani at Shaheen Bagh”.
In late 2019 and 2020, the locality of Shaheen Bagh in Delhi was the site of a large sit-in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. A large proportion of the protestors were Muslim women.
The first phase of the Gujarat Assembly election is being held on Thursday. Voting for the second phase will take place on December 5. The results will be declared on December 8 along with the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.
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