Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders across the country will observe a daylong fast on Sunday to mark their protest against the arrest of party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The AAP also released a phone number in which people, who want to extend support to the party and Mr. Kejriwal, can send in their pictures while fasting through the day.
In a press conference on Saturday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the party will intensify public campaigns in support of Mr. Kejriwal and hold fasts, both in person and at community level, in the country as well as abroad.
“In Delhi, all party MLAs, MPs, councillors and workers will gather for a collective fast at 11 a.m. at Jantar Mantar to register their protest. A fast will also be observed at Bhagat Singh’s native village of Khatkar Kalan in Punjab. There will be mass fasting abroad in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington DC in the U.S.; Toronto in Canada, Melbourne in Australia, London in the U.K. and other places,” Mr. Rai said.
He added that anyone who is supporting the AAP and Mr. Kejriwal, across the world, by participating in the mass fasting programme can send their picture on the designated WhatsApp number. He asked people to post pictures on the website, kejriwalkoaashirvaad.com, and urged people to either collectively pray or listen to the devotional song ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ on YouTube.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government, Mr. Rai said that it is clear from the facts emerging in the so-called liquor scam that the BJP has hatched a conspiracy to eliminate AAP and Mr. Kejriwal’s career. He further alleged that while the country is watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “dual character” in which on the one hand, he is inducting people charged with corruption in his own party, and the other hand sending innocent AAP leaders behind bars.
“Voices of Indians not just in the country but across the world are becoming louder against the dictatorship of Modi government and in support of Mr Kejriwal,” the Minister said.
Mr. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in a money laundering case allegedly linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. He has been sent to judicial custody till April 15 and currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Reacting to the AAP’s fast-cum-protest, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said it is regrettable that instead of AAP leaders apologising to the public for the liquor scam of their government, they are projecting the Chief Minister’s arrest as persecution against him.
“Instead of fasting in support of Chief Minister Kejriwal, it would have been better if they publicly fasted for atonement,” he added.
