NEW DELHI: A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Aam Aadmi Party Convener and CM Arvind Kejriwal for questioning in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, party leaders on Tuesday went hammer and tongs in criticising the BJP-led Centre and central probe agencies. In back-to-back media briefings, they alleged that PM Narendra Modi was scared of the CM and was preparing to get him arrested on November 2 when he appeared before the ED.
They alleged that the BJP and PM wanted the AAP to collapse, which is why all senior leaders were being put behind bars in ‘fake cases’. AAP leader Atishi said that targeting those who speak out against the BJP using the CBI and ED won’t be limited to Kejriwal alone.
“Every leader in the INDIA alliance will be caught in the web. After Kejriwal, Hemant Soren will go to jail because the BJP lost to him in Jharkhand. Then Tejashwi Yadav, Pinarayi Vijayan and MK Stalin will go to jail because the BJP loses to them in Bihar, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.”
“There is no case or evidence against Kejriwal; he will only be arrested because Prime Minister Modi is afraid of him. In 2015, the BJP was enjoying a wave of support for it across the country, but it came to a halt after clashing with Kejriwal. Since then, Modi has been afraid of him. The BJP and PM Modi know they can’t defeat Kejriwal, so they are putting each AAP leader in jail to eliminate the AAP. But PM Modi should know that jailing AAP leaders or implicating them in false cases won’t deter us. We’ll fight to protect the country’s Constitution until our last breath,” she said.
AAP’s national general secretary Sandeep Pathak said that the BJP’s intentions were very clear. “They want to trap Delhi’s CM Kejriwal. The increasing popularity of Kejriwal across the country has left the Modi government deeply worried. The sole objective of the BJP and Modi is to politically eliminate Kejriwal by any means.”
The party’s national spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “Since Monday, the BJP has been saying it out loud that they will arrest the national convener of AAP. The BJP has been rattled since the formation of the AAP.” Meanwhile, the Delhi unit of the BJP welcomed the ED summon to Kejriwal and said that after the rejection of bail pleas of Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nayyar, accused in the alleged liquor scam, the city’s people had realised that he was the real mind behind it.
Its president Virendra Sachdeva said that after Monday’s rejection of the bail plea of Sisodia and the ED summon to CM Kejriwal, AAP leaders Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Gopal Rai and Sandeep Pathak have been holding press conferences and playing the victim card. “When the Supreme Court rejected Manish Sisodia’s bail, it vindicated our allegations of liquor scam and the ED summons to Kejriwal is the final step to take the corruption saga to its conclusion,” he said.
CM is real mind behind excise scam: BJP
The Delhi unit of the BJP welcomed the ED summon to Kejriwal and said that after the rejection of bail pleas of Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nayyar, accused in the alleged liquor scam, the city’s people had realised that he was the real mind behind it.