New Delhi, Mar 1 (PTI) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday alleged AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain were arrested just to “sabotage the good work being done” in Delhi’s education and health sectors while claiming that the two former ministers would walk out of jail if they join BJP today.
“The AAP is a storm. We will be unstoppable now and our time has come,” he said after a meeting with party MLAs and councillors.
A day after Jain and Sisodia resigned from the Delhi Cabinet, Kejriwal said they brought laurels for the country. Not just the AAP, the entire nation was proud of their achievements, he claimed.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on Sunday evening over alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22. Jain is currently in Tihar Jail in a money laundering case. They resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday.
Both have led what the Aam Aadmi Party describes as the successful transformation of Delhi’s education and health services, contributing to the party’s popularity and continued electoral success. Their absence leaves Kejriwal with no heavyweight lieutenant to implement his governance agenda in Delhi.
The chief minister has forwarded the names of AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj to the Lieutenant Governor for their appointment to the Cabinet, sources claimed.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he got “two of our best ministers — Satyendar Jain our health minister and Manish Sisodia, who was our education minister — arrested”.
“Jain gave the model of mohalla clinics in primary healthcare to the entire world. Sisodia transformed government schools and even the former first lady of the US came to witness them (in February 2020),” the Delhi chief minister said.
He claimed that the people who brought laurels for the country were “put behind bars by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just to stop the good work being done here. There is no scam in excise policy… it is just an excuse”.
Launching an attack on the BJP, he said that the saffron party is in power in several states, but they have not improved the state of even a single school or hospital.
“There are BJP-led governments in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. In some places, they have been in power for 30-35 years but they have not been able to repair even one school or hospital.
“It is not a coincidence that the ministers holding the portfolios of education and health, where excellent work was done, were put behind bars,” he charged.
Assuring the people of Delhi, he said the good work done in Delhi won’t stop and will proceed ahead at double the pace.
“We have changed our ministers. Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj are both excellent, professional, educated people and they will take care of portfolios and will do work at double the speed,” Kejriwal said.
The chief minister said they have no dearth of talent. The authorities can arrest as many ministers as they want, the party will bring out more leaders, he said.
Asking whether Sisodia and Jain would have been arrested had they not done good work in Delhi, Kejriwal claimed that the motive was to stop the good work done by them.
“If Sisodia and Jain join BJP today, they will walk out of jails and all cases will end. Their objective is to send CBI and ED behind opposition leaders and trouble them,” he said.
Asked whether there will be a deputy chief minister following Sisodia’s resignation, Kejriwal said, “If the need arises, we shall see.” About the party’s strategy in the days ahead, he said they will carry out a door-to-door campaign and tell them that “there was a time when (former Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi had gone to the extreme, today PM Modi is going extreme”.
“When the extreme happens, nature takes its course. The Almighty uses His force. This is not right (what is happening). People are watching and they are angry,” he said while reiterating that there was no scam in the now-scrapped excise policy and not even a single penny was found in the raids conducted at Sisodia’s or his relatives’ residences.
