Kejriwal, Atishi flag ‘misuse’ of agencies; BJP shoots back

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre uses federal investigating agencies to “topple” opposition-run state governments, accusing the BJP of “cleansing” corrupt politicians who join their party.
The former chief minister made the remarks while speaking in the Delhi assembly on a short duration discussion on the topic: “Misuse of central agencies such as ED, CBI and Income Tax against Delhi ministers and MLAs to destabilise the elected government of Delhi”.
Separately, chief minister Atishi, who concluded the discussion, said that the AAP’s Ram and Laxman — referring to Kejriwal and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia — were sitting together in the House after one-and-a-half years, and claimed that the BJP “left no stone unturned” to “harass” the AAP’s leaders.
The BJP hit back, saying Kejriwal was making “nonsensical statements” to divert the public’s attention away from problems that the city is facing.
Speaking in the House, Kejriwal, the New Delhi legislator, accused the BJP of poaching MLAs from opposition parties.
“Between March 2016 and March 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to topple 13 state governments and managed to topple 10 governments. He stole the mandate by misusing ED and CBI,” he said.
“On June 27, 2023, PM Modi said there is an allegation of a Rs70,000 crore corruption case against Ajit Pawar and he will be sent to jail, but on July 2 he inducted him (Ajit Pawar) into the BJP and made him the deputy CM (of Maharashtra)… There are 25 such leaders who Modi ji brought into the BJP from other parties, and cleansed them; their cases were withdrawn or put on the backburner,” he added.
Kejriwal also claimed that the BJP “will get the votes of those who vote for the AAP deleted” from the electoral roll ahead of the Delhi assembly polls, scheduled for next year.
Meanwhile, Atish, in her first speech in the House as CM, said, “The BJP left no stone unturned in harassing Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders by misusing CBI and ED… Even after hundreds of raids, not a single rupee was found by the agencies because AAP is an honest party. But, despite that they arrested one after another AAP leader including Arvind Kejriwal to stop the work of the people of Delhi and defame AAP.”
She added, “Now that Kejriwal is out of jail, all the stalled work of the people of Delhi will be done in the next six months. In the next election the people of Delhi will give 70 out of 70 seats to the AAP and make Kejriwal CM again.”
Hitting out at the remarks, the BJP pointed to the excise policy, and its withdrawal after allegations about purported irregularities in its formation were levelled.
“As soon as the excise corruption came to light, the policy was withdrawn. If no scam took place in the excise policy, why was the excise policy withdrawn?” leader of the opposition Vijender Gupta said.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “Arvind Kejriwal does not talk about the children who drowned due to the corruption of the Aam Aadmi Party government, does not address the overflowing sewers, and does not discuss the dirty water that the people of Delhi are forced to drink; he does not mention the increased electricity bills that the people of Delhi have to pay. Kejriwal does not speak about the rise from a 2% to a 12% commission in the liquor policy and the corruption involved. Instead of discussing his theft and corruption, Arvind Kejriwal is merely putting on a show.”