From slapping Prashant Bhushan to becoming the BJP’s spokesperson in Delhi, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has had quite a political ride. He has often used Twitter to attack his rivals, such as Arvind Kejriwal, and refuses to tone down his inflammatory remarks
Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga is the Delhi BJP’s spokesperson and the national secretary of the party’s youth wing. Image Courtesy: Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga/Facebook
Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga is no stranger to controversy and his arrest and the subsequent political drama that broke out is another example of it.
On Friday morning, the national secretary of the BJP’s youth wing was arrested by the Punjab Police from his residence in West Delhi. Soon after his arrest, the Delhi and Haryana Police swung into action.
While Delhi cop have filed an ‘abduction’ case against their Punjab counterparts, the Haryana Police stopped a team of cops taking the 36-year-old leader to Mohali where he was supposed to be produced in court.
Bagga’s arrest evoked strong reactions from the BJP with members condemning the Delhi and Punjab Police and coming down heavily on the Aam Aadmi Party, which rules both Delhi and Punjab.
As drama ensues over Bagga’s arrest, we take a look at the other times when the 36-year-old made headlines.
Political beginnings
Tajinder Bagga refers to himself on Twitter as a “#SwayamSewak” and has been known to have ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since age four, as per a report in The Outlook.
His election affidavit shows that he did not complete high school but has a diploma in “National Development Course” from National Defence University in China.
Bagga started his political innings with the lesser-known outfit, the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (BSKS), which described itself a “task force against traitors, anti-nationals and corrupt”.
His first brush with fame came back in 2011 when he disrupted Arundhati Roy’s book launch at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi.
His outfit had also defaced walls around the Pakistan High Commission and pasted posters demanding freedom for Balochistan.
The very next year, he took credit for heckling Syed Ali Shah Geelani at an event organised by the Centre for Study of Developing Studies in Delhi.
Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has a strong social media presence, something that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged earlier back in 2015. Image Courtesy: Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga/Facebook
Shot to limelight
Bagga’s true claim to fame took place in October 2011 when he and his friends attacked and slapped Prashant Bhushan in his Supreme Court chambers.
Bagga later said that the attack was in response to the advocate’s comments on Kashmir.
He had then tweeted, “He try to break my Nation, I try to break his head. Hisab chukta. Congrats to all. Operation Prashant Bhushan successful (sic).”
After Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, Bagga began the NaMo Patrika, a short-lived website to praise the prime minister.
In 2015, realising Bagga’s social media influence (as of date, he has over 900,000 followers on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met him at his official residence along with another 149 pro-right social media influencers in an event called #super150.
Two years later, he was appointed party’s spokesperson to attract youth ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls.
Twitter troll?
Over the years, Bagga has acquired the status of being a Twitter troll, often sharing inflammatory and often fake news, even at the cost of maligning others.
In 2016, when Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone was seen at Jawaharlal Nehru University, standing behind Kanhaiya Kumar and meeting and injured Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union president Aishe Ghosh, it was Bagga who called for a boycott of her films. Soon after, ##BoycottChhapaak and #BoycottDeepika, reported News18.
During the Citizenship Amendment Act protests, Bagga once again came to the fore with his hyper-tweeting. He was accused of sharing doctored videos. One instance would be when he alleged “Muslim and Leftists students in Mumbai again Raised Slogans “Hinduo se Aazadi”.
Bagga was later called out by actor Konkana Sen Sharma on his tweet.
His tweets have also sometimes revealed a sexist side. He had once mocked actress Swara Bhaskar on social media, for her masturbation scene in the movie Veere di Wedding, earning widespread rebuke for his comment.
Bagga isn’t afraid of his tweets or posts. In 2018, when he sold T-shirts which had the image of the controversial human shield incident in Kashmir in which Major Leetul Gogoi had tied a person to a jeep as a shield against stone-pelters, he defended himself, saying it was “a tribute to the army officer’s heroic act”.
File image of BJP’s Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga outside Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house, protesting against his remarks on the movie The Kashmir Files. Image Courtesy: Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga/Facebook
The Kashmir Files row
Bagga has taken potshots at Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on repeated occasions.
The rivalry between the two escalated when Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files released. Bagga had used derogatory and offensive words to lash out at the Delhi chief minister, which he later deleted from the social media platform.
When an FIR was filed against him in the matter, he was non-apologetic and had said that he would ‘put a crack in his nose’.
On 30 March, Bagga was also part of a protest by BJYM members outside Kejriwal’s official residence during which the gates of the CM house were defaced.
One thing is for certain: You may or may not agree with his politics, but there’s no way of ignoring him.
With inputs from agencies
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