The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday defended its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections Kiran Bedi, stating that her garlanding the statue of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai was an act of respect and should not be politicized.
"Such things should not be politicized. At that time, if something was most respectable with her, it was the BJP patka (scarf)," party spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
"Out of respect Kiran Bedi ji presented the statue with the scarf," he added.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely urged Bedi to apologize for her action, terming it an 'insult to the entire nation'.
"Kiran Bedi should apologize to the nation. Lala Lajpat Rai ji was against communalism and against the RSS ideology. It is not only an insult to Lala Lajpat Rai but an insult to the entire nation," Lovely said.
Earlier in the day, Bedi had paid tribute to Lala Lajpat Rai and cleaned his statue in the Krishna Nagar area of the national capital with a BJP scarf.
