AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Sigh on Sunday dared Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to start an investigation into the BJP’s liquor scam, given that the saffron party had taken ₹60 crore in the form of electoral bonds from an accused in the Delhi liquor policy scam case allegedly in exchange for bail and naming Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “50,000 pages and 456 witnesses are placed by ED. But only four witnesses have taken Mr. Kejriwal‘s name and that too, these people have taken his name after being forced. The BJP is the most corrupt party and the money trail in the scam that the Enforcement Directorate is investigating leads right back to the BJP,” he said.
Mr. Singh was speaking at a day-long fast at Jantar Mantar to protest against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Similar protests were held in other States and by Indians abroad, including at Harvard Square in Boston, by the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, outside the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, in New York’s Times Square, and in Toronto, London and Melbourne. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and several Ministers in the AAP-ruled State held a collective fast at freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s village Khatkar Kalan.
Mr. Singh said that a party that was confident of winning an election and was giving the slogan “400 paar ” (above 400) would not be getting two Chief Ministers (Kejriwal and Hemant Soren) arrested by Central agencies and sending Income Tax notices to the Congress and getting their accounts sealed. “This means that the BJP is not winning, they are afraid that they are not coming back to Delhi in 2024,” he said.
He asked all party workers to promise that till the end of the Lok Sabha elections, they would work day and night to ensure their victory in all the seats it was contesting and also work for the INDIA bloc’s victory. “BJP is the most corrupt party as they have picked corrupt leaders from Opposition parties and have made them join the BJP. Go to the people and expose the lies of the BJP,” he told those at the protest.
Addressing the gathering, senior AAP leader Atishi said, “I would like to salute the leaders of the AAP today. Leaders of other parties have bowed down to the BJP as soon as they heard the words CBI, ED and joined the BJP. But our leaders have not broken, we should not feel sad that our leaders are in jail but be proud that they stood up to the BJP.” She told party workers to work hard and reward the jailed leaders’ struggle by getting the vote of the people and putting the final nail in the BJP’s coffin.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said that all those who were supporters of democracy were on fast today in solidarity with the AAP. “The battle has now started against those who topple governments by buying MLAs. The BJP wanted to break the AAP but we have become stronger.”
