Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The BJP on Thursday sprinkled holy ‘Ganga jal’ on the Mahatma Gandhi Samadhi at Rajghat to “purify” the memorial on being “desecrated” by the visit earlier of the Aam Aadmi Party members of the Delhi state Assembly led by the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal “accused of liquor scam.”
The Delhi BJP leader Manoj Tiwari alleged that by visiting Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Rajghat, AAP supremo Kejriwal had desecrated the place and the BJP workers sprinkled ‘Ganga jal’ there to “purify” it.
Kejriwal and his MLAs went in a large group to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Rajghat “to pray for the failure of the BJP’s Operation Lotus” after a meeting at the chief minister’s residence re-assuring themselves that the legislature party had remained intact in the face of alleged attempts by the BJP to buy out its MLAs in a bid to topple the AAP government.
Kejriwal’s “emergency” meeting of his party MLAs earlier in the day produced a reassuring headcount as the party accused the BJP of offering ₹ 20 crore to its MLAs to topple its government in Delhi. Fifty-three of AAP’s 62 MLAs in Delhi attended the meeting at the Chief Minister’s home. Those missing are all accounted for and pledged their support on the speaker phone with Arvind Kejriwal, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said. At least 12 MLAs said they had received BJP offers and each pledged support to Kejriwal “till their last breath”, he said.
The AAP has 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi assembly. The BJP has eight and needs 28 more for a majority. Under the anti-defection law, around 40 MLAs can break away from AAP without facing action. Despite repeated denials by the BJP that it had any such plans to topple the AAP government, Kejriwal maintained that the BJP had kept a budget of Rs 800 crores to buy out 40 of its MLAs to turn the table. He also questioned the source of the huge amount at the BJP disposal to topple his government.
AAP has accused the BJP of plotting an “Operation Lotus” to bring down its government in the pattern of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. AAP leaders claim the BJP is offering ₹ 20 crore to their MLAs and ₹ 25 crore if they bring more with them.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was the first to raise such allegations, two days after the CBI raided him over alleged corruption in the Delhi liquor policy. Sisodia claimed the BJP had reached out to him with an offer to drop cases against him and make him Chief Minister if he switched sides. AAP has not given any evidence or names to back the claims. According to Kejriwal, the CBI had found nothing in a 14-hour raid on Sisodia in connection with the alleged liquor scam.
The BJP, however, accused the AAP of trying to divert the issue of liquor scam by raising toppling moves. Manoj Tiwari took the point further by comparing Kejriwal to Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi government, and accusing him of lying repeatedly. He said AAP’s various allegations were like a “movie script” meant to mislead the public on the “scam” in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy 2021-22.
Reacting to the AAP’s claims that the BJP was trying to poach its MLAs with an offer of ₹ 20 crore each to switch sides, Tiwari said everyday the AAP was coming up with old “movie scripts” to divert the public from the real issue. “This is a total flop show of the AAP. Kejriwal ji you have to speak on the excise policy but your silence on this issue says a lot. You always come up with the same old, worn-out movie script to divert public attention. Arvind, you have become a descendant of Goebbels, who used to think that if you keep telling the public a lie, they will start believing it as a truth,” Tiwari said. “Are these descendants of Goebbels even worthy of visiting the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi?” Tiwari asked.
“You (Kejriwal) are busy in diverting the issue after gobbling up the public money. You should answer that why your excise policy was taken back as soon as the CBI enquiry was ordered?” Tiwari asked. BJP MP from west Delhi Parvesh Sahib Singh also hit out at the AAP and said the party was doing “theatrics” instead of coming clean on allegations of “scam” in the excise policy.
“Arvind Kejriwal, who is hand-in-glove with the liquor mafia, desecrated the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, who used to speak against liquor. Our party workers will sprinkle Ganga water to purify the place,” Singh said. He said that those involved in the “scam” are bound to go behind bars for the corruption they have committed because the investigation agencies have all the incriminating evidence against them.
The CBI is currently probing alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Kejriwal government’s new excise policy and has named his deputy Manish Sisodia, who holds excise portfolio, as one of the accused in its FIR. The agency had also conducted raid at the Deputy CM’s residence last week.
Sisodia also attacked the BJP on Thursday and said the BJP should rather be focussing on working for the people instead of “frightening and toppling other state governments.” “Instead of toppling other state govts & frightening them, they (BJP) should better work for the people. It can happen with fewer efforts than bringing down the governments. They’re ‘serial killers’ & are murdering democracy,” Sisodia said.
