Satyendar Jain meets Jain monk

Amid the raging controversy over music composer and Aam Aadmi Party supporter Vishal Dadlani’s sarcastic Twitter remark on Jain monk Tarun Sagar’s address to Haryana Assembly, Delhi PWD minister Satyendar Jain met the monk on Monday. The meeting took place on Monday morning even as a group of Jain community members staged a protest outside Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in the national capital, demanding Mr Dadlani’s immediate arrest.

“I met Tarun Sagar Maharaj and talked about the controversy that arose two days ago. He said that he was not affected by it and that he has forgiven those who inadvertently did so,” the Delhi minister said, rejecting suggestion that this was party’s damage control exercise.

Mr Jain said efforts were on to politicise the whole issue and that the matter should be put to rest as the monk has forgiven the guilty. “I feel some people are doing politics over it, the issue should be ended now. (Congress man) Tehsin Poonawala who commented against Maharaj-ji has not even apologised and none of his party’s leaders, including Soniaji and Rahul Gandhi, has expressed regret over it. The mater should be kept away from politics,” he said. The minister added that Mr Kejriwal had earlier sought forgiveness for Dadlani’s tweets. “I also carried Arvind Kejriwal’s message that he felt sad for what was said about him to which Maharaji-ji said that he has already forgiven those who inadvertently did so,” he said.

Mr Jain also defended Mr Dadlani, saying that he realised his mistake and was deeply hurt over the whole issue and repeatedly sought forgiveness for his act. “Vishal realised that he committed a mistake and was deeply hurt. He expressed apologies many times. It was not a matter of difference of opinion it was about a word that he unknowingly used,” he said. Stung by criticism from several quarters, including Mr Kejriwal, over his sarcastic tweet on the Jain monk’s address to the Haryana Assembly, Mr Dadlani had on Sunday announced quitting “all active political work/affiliation”.