Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti addressing a rally in Trilokpuri in East Delhi. (Press Trust of India)
Hours after police orders to shift the venue of her election meeting on Monday, Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti addressed two election rallies in Delhi. One of them was in east Delhi's Trilokpuri, which had witnessed communal clashes last month.
In view of the communally sensitive nature of the area, the police had asked that the venue of the nukkad sabha," or a corner meet, be shifted. The BJP complied, moving to a large public park in the same area.
Ms Jyoti had been at the centre of a controversy since she delivered a hate speech on December 1. It had triggered political outrage and led to deadlock in Parliament for days. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his disapproval to her comments.
Ms Jyoti had apologized to the Parliament on PM Modi's orders, but it had left the Opposition unmoved. The government made it clear that it would not remove the minister and the Prime Minister said she be forgiven since she is a first-time member and has "a rural background".
The logjam in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, was finally sorted out on Monday with the intervention of its Chairman, Vice President Hamid Ansari.
In her address, on Monday, Ms Jyoti confined herself to attacking the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party and asked the people to support the BJP in the upcoming assembly elections.
She talked of PM Modi's development mantra, saying "The world has started respecting India since Modiji has become the Prime Minister".
At both meetings, she ended her speeches with bhajans.