NEW DELHI: AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday took a swipe at the BJP-led central government regarding their alleged negligence of law and order issues, claiming that rather than addressing criminal activities, he was attacked.
In response, the BJP dismissed Kejriwal’s allegations, calling the attack claim “drama.” The party further alleged that the AAP leader was the “writer, director, and producer” of the incident.
Addressing a press conference here, Kejriwal said, “I have been raising the issue of deteriorating law and order situation in Delhi. I am a citizen of Delhi, and have been a CM. People are living in fear. I thought the situation would improve, but it has not.”
“The law and order of Delhi is under Union home minister Amit Shah. I raised the issue, I thought he would act, but instead attack happened on me yesterday. The liquid thrown on me was harmless, but it could have been dangerous. This is the third attack on me in the last 35 days,” he added.
This comes after an incident on Saturday, when in a security incident, an individual threw liquid at Kejriwal during his ‘padyatra’ in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar.
The former chief minister of Delhi also alleged that, “By arresting Balyan, the Home Minister has given a message that if you complain against gangsters, you can be attacked or arrested.”
“Our MLA has been arrested, he was also a victim of gangsters, he was getting calls from them. MLA Naresh Balyan is victim of Kapil Sangwan. Instead of taking action against the gangster, he was arrested, and I was attacked,” the AAP convenor added.
Speaking on the matter, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said the AAP supremo is playing a “fake sympathy card.”
He said, “There is a lot of anger among people against Arvind Kejriwal because he looted people and built a ‘Sheesh Mehal’…people of Delhi know that AAP can’t seek vote based on governance so Kejriwal is playing a fake sympathy card, he is the writer, director and producer of this.”
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla added that even the Congress party has questioned the timing of such incidents, which seemingly coincide with Delhi elections.
He remarked, “It’s not us but Congress has also spoken and said that whenever there are elections around in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal stages such dramas, where someone attacks him, throws ink on him. Are these things staged? Or, it is the genuine angst of people towards AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. AAP should explain this.”
BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri categorically denied any attack, stating, “There was no attack on Kejriwal, it’s just a drama…after 4 days, you will get to know that this was their own person.”
Kejriwal further reiterated his party’s stand against having any type of political tie-up in the capital for the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, and said that “There will be no alliance in Delhi.”
The AAP leader further added that the BJP was employing unfair tactics due to their apprehension of facing a third successive defeat in the forthcoming Delhi assembly elections.
