Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a message from Tihar Jail has asked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs to visit their respective constituencies and ensure that nobody was facing any problem. The message was delivered by his wife Sunita Kejriwal in a video statement posted on various social media platforms in a manner similar to the previous messages from the Chief Minister that she had communicated.
However, this time around the background wall, which had on earlier two occasions portraits of B.R. Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh, had a third photo, that of Mr. Kejriwal in which he appears to be standing behind bars.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) picked up on the change in the background wall and accused AAP of hurting people’s sentiments. It demanded that the Chief Minister’s portrait be immediately removed.
Mr. Kejriwal, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy, is in judicial custody till April 15. The court has allowed Ms. Kejriwal to connect with her husband through videoconferencing. The CM has so far sent four messages, first from the ED custody and then from Tihar Jail since his arrest on March 21. Earlier, he sent messages to Water Minister Atishi and Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj as well. This time, in his message to all his MLAs, Mr. Kejriwal said, “I am in jail. Because of this none of my fellow Delhiites should face any kind of trouble. Every MLA should visit the area daily... Whatever problem anyone has, solve it. The two crore people of Delhi are my family and no one in my family should be sad for any reason. God bless everyone. Jai Hind.”
Slamming AAP for putting up the CM’s portrait along with Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “AAP should stop hurting the sentiments of people by putting up Kejriwal’s photo along with patriots.” The party has been breaking the political decorum by allowing the jailed CM to continue in office and issuing political messages from the official chair of the Chief Minister of Delhi through his wife, the BJP leader added.
Senior AAP leader Atishi said, “Kejriwal is a symbol of the current struggle against the BJP’s dictatorship. His photograph in our offices is to remind us that the struggle against the BJP is no less than the freedom movement.”
