NEW DELHI: In a full-page advertisement in major dailies, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today slammed the Haryana government for its "inaction" in checking violence during the recent Jat stir in that state and also took a dig at the Centre by likening it to a "Dhirtrashtra", the blind king of epic Mahabharata.
The chief minister also appealed to the people to maintain peace and harmony through the advertisement carried by all prominent newspapers in Delhi and Haryana.
Kejriwal says in the ad, he was very upset with whatever happened (Jat quota stir) in Haryana, saying it was like demolishing a new (play) house built by a child.
"At a time when Haryana's Captain Pawan Kumar was fighting against terrorists for safety of the country, we were fighting against each other....We will have to understand politics behind violence. As I requested earlier, we should protect ourselves from their dirty politics," Kejriwal said.
Lashing out at the BJP-led Haryana government, Kejriwal alleged the state government "did nothing" to prevent the Jat agitation from turning violent, and the Centre too also "did nothing" in this regard.
"Haryana sarkar hath pe hath dhare baithi rahi aur dusri taraf kendra sarkar Dhritrashtra ki tarah dekhti rahi (On one hand Haryana government sat idle, while the Centre played a Dhritrashtra," he alleged.
"In this difficult time, I stand with you (Haryana's people). I request the state government to give compensation to families who have suffered loss of life and property without any discrimination...," Kejriwal, who hails from Haryana, said.
During the Jat quota agitations last month, around 30 people had died and several properties including vehicles and shops were vandalised by protesters.
Opposition BJP in Delhi retaliated by accusing the AAP government of spending public money on "politically motivated" advertisement on internal issues of the neighbouring state, saying it will take up the matter with President Pranab Mukherjee.
"BJP will take up the matter of Kejriwal government's advertisement on Haryana issue with the President and demand that its cost be recovered from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal personally," Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said.
Spending huge amount of public money on advertisements aimed at "political expansion" of AAP is not only "immoral" but also amounts to "cheating" people of Delhi, he said.
"We have constantly said that the Kejriwal government has been trying to politically expand" itself at the cost of Delhi's exchequer and today's advertisement is a blatant proof of the same," he alleged.