Stop being hysterical, Jaitley to Kejriwal after AAP charges him of corruption during DDCA tenure

Drama on: Arvind Kejriwal seems to believe in untruth and defamation, says Jaitley

New Delhi:

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, accusing him of spreading ‘untruth’ against him, two days after the AAP first alleged that Jaitley was involved in the DDCA scam.

“Free speech is unquestionably a pre-eminent Fundamental Right, but does free speech include the right to speak only falsehood The Delhi Chief Minister, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, seems to believe in untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria,” said Jaitley in a Facebook post.

Jaitley slammed the AAP for trying to ‘deflect attention’ by targeting the BJP to shield the principal secretary. Dismissing charges against him as false propaganda, Jaitley said, “Finding himself (Kejriwal) acting as a shield to cover an officer under investigation, the Delhi Chief Minister has attempted to focus attention on me. He questioned the purpose of the search and tried to divert attention by linking it to the Delhi Cricket body rather than alleged corruption of this official.”

Jaitley said that he was not concerned with the Delhi cricket administration since 2013, and had been writing to various governmental bodies with regard to the city’s cricket affairs in capacity of a Member of the Parliament.

“No personal allegation was ever made against me nor did I ever feel the need of contradicting it. There are fake allegations such as escalation of cost of construction of a stadium. When work expands, cost escalations are integral. A brand new 42,000 capacity world class stadium was constructed by the EPIL, a public sector body at a total cost of around Rs.114 crores,” Jaitley explained in his post.

He went on to add that investigations were carried out by the UPA government in the alleged irregularities during their regime, but not a “shred of evidence” was found against him.

“I have left cricket administration in 2013. By referring to some facts of 2014 and 2015, he (Kejriwal) can’t drag me in.”

Jaitley also lashed out at the Delhi CM for using ‘unacceptable adjectives’ in his statements against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“It is clear that the search had nothing to do with either the Chief Minister or his room. An official was being searched for an alleged offence in his earlier capacities. The CBI has adequately clarified that. Notwithstanding that, an actually false propaganda is being repeated continuously. Why should the Chief Minister place himself as a shield in front of an official who is facing investigation ” he asked.