Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Amritsar airport on Sunday. Mr Kejriwal is set to perform sewa at the Golden Temple on Monday. (Photo: PTI)
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal arrives at Amritsar airport on Sunday. Mr Kejriwal is set to perform sewa at the Golden Temple on Monday. (Photo: PTI)
Locked in a bitter battle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a host of issues, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused him of turning the Centre’s relationship with the Delhi government into an India-Pakistan-type situation.
In the inaugural interactive session, Talk to AK, on Sunday, Mr Kejriwal fielded questions ranging from his equation with the Modi government to his party’s preparations for the Assembly elections in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat. According to the AAP government, it received over 1.26 lakh questions — 38,919 on Facebook, 19,832 on Twitter, 58,831 on the website Talk to AK and 9,000 SMSes.
“I had told him (Mr Modi), forgive me if I have committed any mistake, but please end these irritants. A lot of work has been done. But if not for obstacles, the amount of work would have been four times. Our Assembly passed 14 bills, including on time-bound services delivery, which had the clause of automatic compensation. It’s been eight months since this passage of this bill,” Mr Kejriwal said, accusing the Centre of trying to “paralyse” the Delhi government.
Mr Kejriwal also talked about issues related to appointment of 21 parliamentary secretaries, arrest of his principal secretary Rajendra Kumar by the CBI and transfer of officers. Taking a jibe at Mr Modi, the chief minister said he is the “only corrupt chief minister in the country in the eyes” of the Prime Minister.
“The message to officers is do not work for us. Amit Shah is micromanaging the CBI. But every dog has his day. All these will soon come to an end,” he said.
Referring to a letter written to him by former Gujarat BJP leader Yatin Oza, Mr Kejriwal alleged that the BJP president had struck a deal with the controversial All-India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ud Muslimeem (AIMIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi ahead of the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections. If the claims are true, then it was very dangerous, he said.
Justifying the AAP government’s spendings on advertisements, Mr Kejriwal insisted that it spent only Rs 75 crore not Rs 526 crore in the last fiscal and accused the RSS of maligning his party with unfounded allegations.
Mr Kejriwal claimed Delhi’s development was progressing despite obstacles and slammed the Modi government for transferring top performing bureaucrats out of Delhi. “Some flyovers were under construction in Delhi when we took over. We completed those projects before schedule and saved over Rs 350 crore,” he said.
On his party’s preparation for the Assembly elections in other states, he said, “People have decided to teach them a lesson. We will contest elections in Gujarat if people want. The response we received was tremendous. We will replicate our good work in Punjab.”
Mr Kejriwal concluded by promising that he will be hold the next edition of Talk to AK in one-to-two months. The chief minister was joined by his deputy Manish Sisodia for his nearly two-hour public interaction.
