Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suffers from “anti-Modi mania” and is desperately seeking “national attention,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday evening in an exclusive interview with The Hindu , ratcheting up the political battle with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the CBI raids on the CM’s Office.
Mr. Naidu’s response came after Mr. Kejriwal unleashed a series of tweets, describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “coward and a psychopath” following the raids at his Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar’s office and home.
Mr. Naidu on Tuesday condemned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as unbecoming of a Chief Minister.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Mr. Naidu said: “For the life of me I cannot gauge why this man is suffering from anti-Modi mania. It is extremely unbecoming of a Chief Minister to be using this kind of language that too for the Prime Minister of the country. He called the Prime Minister a coward. Modi a coward? The entire world is acknowledging his stature, saying he is a rockstar, he is bold, he is direct,” he said.
He said the Union government was doing its best to accommodate the interests of Delhi, despite all these provocations.
“When he met me personally I told him, ‘do you want to run Delhi and solve the problems of the country or do you want to quarrel with Narendra Modi and stay relevant in the national headlines?’” he said.
“He wants to project himself as a national alternative. He went to Varanasi to contest against the Prime Minister in 2014. Why? Was he the candidate of a combined Opposition? No. But every time he will take the name of the Prime Minister to elevate himself to that level,” he added.
“My own ministry has allocated Rs. 3,125 crore to the Delhi government, not to mention other ministries like Home and Roads and Highways,” he added. He said Mr. Kejriwal’s attitude to the raids on his Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar reeked of hypocrisy.
