My duty to protect honest officers: Kejriwal
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Delhi Assembly and demanded his resignation for getting a “flop” raid conducted at the Delhi Secretariat in order to “shield” finance minister Arun Jaitley in the alleged DDCA scam. “Through this House, I seek the Prime Minister’s resignation for conducting a flop raid and for misusing the CBI. If he uses the CBI to get any file, then the country will have no democracy left. Tomorrow there can be raids on any chief minister. This is onset of a dangerous trend for the country’s federal structure,” Mr Kejriwal said.
During a special one-day session of the Assembly, the government passed a resolution to form a commission of inquiry to probe alleged corruption in DDCA, even as the Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta claimed that the panel was “unconstitutional.” Mr Gupta’s claim was dismissed by Mr Kejriwal who said that it was within the city government’s powers to set up a commission of inquiry to probe alleged corruption in the state’s cricket body.
“We have the right to probe the irregularities in sport, player selection, stadium construction. Everyone is admitting that there was a scam. We have power to set up such a commission. In the past, we set up a commission of inquiry over the transport scam involving former CM and her officials, but MHA later declared it null and void as L-G was getting implicated in it. MHA has no power to declare our commission of inquiry null and void,” he said.
Terming December 15 (the day CBI raided the office of Mr Kejriwal’s principal secretary Rajendra Kumar), as a “black day” in the history of Indian democracy, Mr Kejriwal dared the Prime Minister to act against Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his Rajasthan counterpart Vasundhara Raje and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. He also accused that the CBI raid was actually aimed at his office in a bid to look for a note containing “incriminating evidence” against Mr Jaitley. “Rajendra toh sirf bahana tha, Kejriwal nishana tha,” Mr Kejriwal said.
Choosing to defend Mr Kumar against the allegations of graft committed in his official capacity under the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit government, the Delhi CM asserted that if his government can act against the corrupt officers, it is also his duty to protect honest officers.
“He is being mentally harassed. The Central Bureau of Investigation could get nothing after interrogating him for over 50 hours, apart from '27 lakh in his account and 12 bottles of liquor. If I can remove my minister and babu for committing corruption, it is also my duty to protect honest officers,” he said participating in a discussion in the Assembly on the situation arising out of the raid at the Delhi Secretariat and alleged corruption in the Delhi District Cricket Association under Mr Jaitley’s watch.
Mr Kumar was seated in the officers’ gallery of the Assembly during the proceedings of the House. Attacking Mr Modi, Mr Kejriwal said that the Prime Minister should be “ashamed of himself” over the raids and took a series of jibes on him over his '10 lakh suit and foreign trips. He smirked that Delhi’s affairs function smooth when the Prime Minister is out on his foreign trips, but the moment he comes back, they get “disrupted.”
“He is fulfilling his dreams now as earlier he did not get a visa. Delhi is all right whenever he is out of the city. Whenever he’s back everything goes haywire,” Mr Kejriwal said.
The chief minister claimed the Prime Minister was yet to get over the “wiping out” of the BJP in the Delhi elections.
The Assembly also passed a motion moved by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia against the CBI raid at Delhi Secretariat, condemning the Centre for its alleged high handedness and adding it was in “violation of the federal structure” and the “spirit of the Constitution.” “We are constantly seeking PM’s cooperation and for this, I have met him two-three times and told him we don’t need money, and instead, we want him not to put hurdles to our works. Give us Delhi for a year and will fulfil your dreams,” Mr Kejriwal said.
Thanking Mr Jaitley from the “bottom of his heart” for filing defamation suit against him and five other AAP leaders, Mr Kejriwal warned Mr Jaitley that he will be cross-examined by his lawyers for almost one year.
