Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 11: As the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday thundered against the “arrogant” prime minister Narendra Modi, the BJP plastered Delhi streets with posters claiming that the Aam Aadmi Party chief was living in opulence like the dictators of Iraq Saddam Hussein and of North Korea Kim Jung-un.
The BJP launched the poster war on the basis of the party’s allegations that Kejriwal renovated his “palace” with tax payers’ money spending over Rs 45 cores for construction of white columns, marble floors, fancy lighting, and automatic doors and bombarded the social media with visuals of his two-storey “bungalow.”
The poster war was timed with the AAP’s “Maha Rally” at the spacious Ramlila Maidan against the Centre’s ordinance promulgated on May 19, which effectively reversed the Supreme Court’s May 11 judgment on the issue of services that gave the elected regime the power to wield control over the Delhi government officials.
Hitting out at the centre, Kejriwal said Delhi was the first state to be attacked but would not be the last and similar ordinances would be brought for other states to deny the non-BJP governments any power to govern.
Kejriwal said, “We had assembled in this Ramlila Maidan 12 years ago during the India against corruption movement. Today, we have gathered here again to remove a dictator. This campaign will also become fruitful.” Stating that for the first time a Prime Minister said he wouldn’t follow the Supreme Court, the Delhi CM said, “People are surprised that a Prime Minister is this arrogant. This is dictatorship. Modiji’s ordinance has overruled the Supreme Court’s order. This is also an insult to the people of Delhi.”
He asserted that he would stand against the ordinance. “I will get it cancelled and implement the Supreme Court’s order to save democracy. This is not just against Delhi. Similar ordinances will be applied in States as well soon.”
Pointing out that after the ordinance there was no democracy in Delhi, Kejriwal said, “There will be dictatorship in Delhi and the LG (lieutenant governor) is supreme. People can vote for whoever they want, but the Centre will run Delhi,” Arvind Kejriwal said.
“I have been travelling across the country and I want to assure the people of Delhi that they are not alone. The 140 crore people of India are with them,” he said. Delhi is the “first city to be attacked” and they will bring such ordinances for Rajasthan and other states too, the AAP leader claimed.
On the arrests of AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, he said they were arrested in order to stop works in the national capital. “But we have 100 Sisodias and 100 Jains. They will continue the good work,” the chief minister said.
While former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was arrested in February over alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22, Jain was arrested in May last year in a money laundering case. “I want to ask that PM (Narendra) Modi has been in power as Gujarat chief minister and then as prime minister for long, and Kejriwal has been in power for eight years, who has done more work for people,” he said.
Earlier in the day, elaborate security measures were put in place in and around Ramlila Maidan, police said. The AAP had claimed that the rally would be attended by over one lakh people. A senior police officer said around 12 companies of paramilitary forces, along with the local police were deployed at the venue with surveillance through CCTV cameras.
Metal detectors were also installed at the entry gates of the ground. Those entering the rally were frisked. Senior officials from the district were present at the spot. The Delhi Traffic Police also issued a number of advisories regulating the vehicular during the rally.
The event was also attended by Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, who stressed on opposition unity to fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Amid the AAP rally, the BJP launched the poster attack with several placards strategically placed on Delhi’s roads next to AAP posters on the rally. “Mega rally against the dictatorship of the Centre,” the AAP poster reads. “Rs 45 crore for Kejriwal’s house renovation. Please answer. This money is from my taxes,” the bigger BJP placard right next to it reads. Another BJP placard in Delhi reads, “Mr Kejriwal, we also want to see the AAP’s palace worth ₹ 45 crore.” The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit back, saying the BJP was trying to divert attention from real issues by raising this matter.
