On the day of the Bharat bandh , which was supported by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the party alleged that their chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was kept “under house arrest” by the “Central government’s Delhi Police”, a claim which was denied by the police.
The party claimed that when its MLAs went to meet the Chief Minister, Delhi Police “beat them up”, and even a house help was not allowed to enter Mr. Kejriwal’s house.
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Later in the evening, addressing party leaders at his residence, Mr. Kejriwal said, “I wanted to go to the border as a common man and not a Chief Minister and sit with farmers and support them and come back. I feel that they [the Central government] came to know about my plan and did not allow me to go today.”
Denying the allegations, Anto Alphonse, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), said, “The allegation of Delhi CM put under house arrest was incorrect. Police were present around his residence due to security reasons. The people who wanted to meet CM were permitted. We had tied up with CM residence staff for movement of authorised persons.”
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When contacted, a party spokesperson said around 7 p.m. that there was no longer any problem for Mr. Kejriwal to meet anyone, or for party leaders to meet him.
“The Centre was upset because, first, we did not allow the Centre to convert the stadiums into jails, and second, we are making arrangements there for the convenience of the farmers,” Mr. Kejriwal told party leaders.
The AAP chief said that because of this, the Central government has been “trying to stop” him from going out for the past two days.
“If they didn’t stop me today, I would have gone there [to the protest site] for some time. But they didn’t want me to go there and support them [the farmers]. But I was here and prayed to god that the protest will be successful. The protest went well. I hope the Central government will accept all the demands of the farmers,” he added.
