On the fifth day of his sit-in protest at a waiting room in Raj Niwas, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed apprehension that his deputy Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain may be “forced” to end their hunger strike and evicted.
The CM tweeted his fears after a team of 20 medical staff, headed by experts from four prominent government hospitals, reached the L-G Office around noon.
“Why r they planning to take them forcefully? It is just 4 days. Both of them r fit. They r fighting for the people of Delhi [sic.],” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted. Mr. Jain and Mr. Sisodia have been on an indefinite hunger strike since Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
A while later, Mr. Sisodia released a video from the L-G Office and warned that if they were forcibly removed from Raj Niwas, they would stop drinking water too.
“Around 20-25 people have reached the L-G Office. It seems that there is preparation to forcibly remove us. I want to warn Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the L-G and the police not to try to end our fast... we will give up even water,” Mr. Sisodia said in the video.
A senior government official said while Mr. Jain had lost a couple of kilograms there was “no need to hospitalise them as of now”.
Message to PM Modi
“A regular team comprising a doctor, a nurse and a helper has been visiting to check on the health of the Ministers. This afternoon a team of specialists visited them also,” the official said.
Mr. Kejriwal, who has been occupying a 12x6 feet visitor’s room next to Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal’s official chamber since Monday evening, wrote to the Prime Minister on “striking IAS officers” once again on Friday.
He also asked the PM what he would have done had he been in his shoes. Mr. Kejriwal, in a video message, said he had written to Mr. Modi asking if he, despite being the Prime Minister, would be able to run his government if the bureaucracy did not adhere to his instructions of attending meetings.
“Would you have been able to run the government if bureaucrats did not turn up for your meetings?” Mr. Kejriwal said in the video while addressing Mr. Modi.
The CM said that he would only be able to attend a meeting of the NITI Aayog on June 17 if the striking officers were made to fall in line.
While these events were unfolding at the L-G Office, opposition BJP leaders and a suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA, who are sitting on a similar protest outside the Chief Minister’s Office at the Delhi Secretariat converted their dharna into an indefinite hunger strike.
The BJP leaders sitting on a dharna for the third consecutive day on Friday decided to embark upon an indefinite hunger strike to protest the “CM’s failure to resolve [an] unprecedented water crisis” in the Capital.
BJP MLAs Vijender Gupta, Jagdish Pradhan, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, suspended AAP MLA Kapil Mishra and MP Pravesh Verma said in a joint statement that they began the indefinite hunger strike at noon.
“Despite being the chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, Mr. Kejriwal continues to stay away from work and has never bothered to augment water supply or initiate new projects for which funds were provided by the Centre and international agencies. Our protest is also against the unauthorised dharna of the CM and his colleagues at Raj Niwas, their misgovernance and falsehood,” the statement said.
