CM Arvind Kejriwal back with a vengeance

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose tweets against the Centre and PM Narendra Modi were not seen for quite some time, has pulled out his crusader’s cape and gathered his anti-graft ammo once again.

Mr Kejriwal has been firing potshots from Twitter once again. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, who came into politics riding an anti-corruption wave that first gathered momentum at India Gate, has been particularly vocal about the recent mega-crore-rupee scam involving jeweller Nirav Modi and the PNB on the micro-blogging site.

In tweet after tweet in the past few days, the CM has been taking on the BJP and PM Modi over the issue. Of the nearly 35 tweets by the tax officer-turned-politician over three days in the past week, 24 posts were on the scam itself.

Most of them castigated the Centre for the fraud and the jeweller’s flight from India, while some referred to liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who has also fled the country.

The BJP govt should give a time line by when will it bring Mallya and Neerav Modi back to India (sic), he tweeted.

“By when will the money be recovered from them,” he tweeted on February 16. “Is it possible to believe that he or Vijay Mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt (sic),” he said in another tweet. Most of his tweets and re-tweets, during February 15-17, targeted the Centre, but some  referred to the PM, something which the CM has avoided doing since the AAPs poor electoral performances last year.

On February 15, when reports alleging that Nirav Modi and his uncle had committed a bank fraud of almost `114 billion with the connivance of some PNB officials hogged the headlines, Mr Kejriwal posted 18 tweets. Of these, 11 related to the scam and hit out at the government  in general and the PM in particular. Of these seven pertained to the scam alone.

His other tweets were mostly on the achievements of the Delhi government. But for a politician whose main plank has been his anti-graft battle, the CM’s tweets do not surprise his colleagues. “Our party originated from an andolan, which was based on an anti-corruption movement,” said Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP chief spokesperson, Delhi unit.

He, however, disagreed with the view that Mr Kejriwal had been subdued in his attacks in recent times.

Some political observers believe that after a series of electoral reversals, the chief minister had been unusually quiet. When the Karni Sena protest against ‘Padmaavat’ was at its peak, he was vocal about it. He also took an aggressive stance during MCD sealing issue,” Mr Bharadwaj said.