Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the BJP on various grounds and exhorted AAP legislators to be prepared to be jailed. The immediate trigger for the attack was twofold: the delay in holding MCD elections, and the arrest of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain as well threat of arrest of other Aam Aadmi Party legislators including deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. The CM was speaking during a discussion on postponement of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls on the second and last day of the monsoon session of the assembly.
Taking off from the unseemly sight of garbage across the national capital, Kejriwal argued that while visitors to the city are impressed with the condition of schools, hospitals, uninterrupted and free power supply, etc, the garbage strewn across several parts is always an eyesore.
He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of taking revenge on the people of Delhi and went on to defend the safai karamcharis (sanitation workers) in the capital. “I once asked a tall leader of the BJP why they were not cleaning Delhi. After all, it is not such a difficult task. The answer was that the safai karamcharis of Delhi were kaamchor (slackers). BJP waale kehte hain ki Dilli ke safai karmachari kaamchor hain. Dilli ke safai karmachari kaam chor nahi hain. Tum chor ho, tum daku ho (People from BJP say that Delhi’s sanitation workers are slackers. The sanitation workers aren’t slackers. You are thieves and dacoits),” Kejriwal said.
The chief minister also argued that after the unification of the three MCDs, the Delhi government has no role in disbursing funds to the corporation. “Get funds from the Centre. Even now you do not have funds. You are not paying salaries. Now the government of Delhi does not have to do anything. So get funds from the Centre. Even now, no work in Delhi is being done,” he alleged.
Kejriwal also referred to an iconic scene from the 1975 film Deewaar to drive home a point. “They will not allow (MCD) elections to be held. Why? Remember that Amitabh Bacchan film, ‘Deewar’? You all must have seen the film. In that, Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor are speaking to each other. Amitabh Bachchan asks, ‘What did you gain by being principled? I have money, riches, fame, house, car, what do you have?’ Shashi Kapoor says, ‘I have mother’. Today, the BJP is openly threatening the people of Delhi. They are saying we have the ED, I-T, CBI, Delhi Police and all riches, big offices in every district. What do you have? Delhi’s two crore citizens say in one breath that they have their son, Kejriwal. That is why they are scared. Janta keh rahi hai khabardar tumne Kejriwal ko haath lagaya (The public is saying don’t you dare touch Kejriwal). They will not conduct elections because they know that the people of Delhi are standing with their son, their brother,” the CM said.
The chief minister also alleged that the BJP has started issuing a new threat that in Delhi, the next assembly elections will not be held, that it will be a full union territory without an assembly. Targeting the opposition BJP MLAs in the house, particularly the leader of the opposition RS Bidhuri, the CM said, “Hating Kejriwal has led you to hate the country. Kejriwal will come and go, Kejriwal is not important, but if you stop holding elections, fail to uphold the Constitution, and destroy democracy, this country will not survive. Bidhuri saab, we are not immortal, one day we will also die, but the coming generations including your children will curse you for standing on the floor of this house and saying that you will finish democracy in Delhi,” said Kejriwal.
The chief minister cited the case of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain’s arrest “despite the agencies being unable to prove any corruption” on the latter’s part. Kejriwal lauded Jain’s contribution of providing the model of mohalla clinics to the world, ensuring uninterrupted and free power supply in Delhi, and questioned the intent behind the arrest. “Now, they are threatening that by the end of August, they will arrest Manish Sisodia. Does he look like a thief? He has built the future of 18 lakh children of Delhi,” he added.
Kejriwal threw an open challenge to the BJP on performance related to schools in 19 states ruled by the saffron party on one side and Delhi on the other. Pointing out that 20 to 22 AAP MLAs have already been jailed who were later acquitted by courts, the CM said that there are fresh notices against Amanatullah Khan, Atishi, Sanjeev Jha, among others. And, he said, crossing all limits, apart from MLAs and ministers, the ED is also targeting little-known AAP workers. One had been summoned on three days, said the AAP convener, and was questioned for 10 hours on some false case unrelated to the Satyendar Jain case.
“Today, from this house, I would like to appeal to all AAP MLAs, ministers, and workers across the country to be prepared to go to jail. There is no need to be scared of them (pointing to opposition BJP MLAs in the house). I have been in jail for fifteen days, there is no difficulty inside the jail,” he said.
The chief minister also questioned the authenticity of the investigations done by various agencies.
“Across the country, one party after another is breaking up, bending backwards, falling apart. They have broken them all. Now the country is looking at AAP. Aam Aadmi Party akeli hai jisse pant gili hoti hai, keval aam aadmi party hai jisse top ke dono neta darte hain (Aam Aadmi Party makes them wet their pants. Their top two leaders are scared of AAP),” Kejriwal claimed, adding that this phase will go down in history as a black chapter and AAP legislators, who have been or will be jailed, will be remembered as freedom fighters. “You are the Bhagat Singhs of this time, be prepared to die.”
Speaking to reporters outside the house, the chief minister said that AAP will approach the courts, if necessary, for timely MCD elections. “Today, there was a discussion in the house regarding the fact that MCD elections are not being held in Delhi. The manner in which they brought a bill, and, in the name of unification postponed elections, shows that the unification of MCDs was done because they did not want to hold elections, they wanted to postpone elections. Unification was just an excuse. Even then, when the bill for unification was passed, they had said that a delimitation commission was going to be formed soon and after that elections would be held. Now, more than one and a half months have passed since unification but one is yet to hear anything on delimitation and neither do they intend on forming one,” he said.
It is clear that the BJP is scared, said Kejriwal. “BJP is scared of AAP here in Delhi and it does not want to hold elections. This is against democracy, Constitution, and we demand that elections be held soon, and if they do not do that, if we need to go to the court, we will do that,” he said.
In the same vein, when asked about his statement on the BJP turning Delhi into a union territory without an assembly, Kejriwal reiterated, “There is a huge buzz about this. This is because AAP is not under their control. BJP’s senior leaders who I have met have said that Delhi will be turned into a full union territory and, in Delhi, there will be no assembly. But then people of Delhi will not sit back; they will take to the streets.”
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