by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Making yet another U-turn, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday apologized to BJP leader Nitin Gadkari for making unverified allegations of corruption against him after which the Union Minister withdrew his defamation case.
The development came days after the AAP leader regretted having accused Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia of drug trade without evidence.
In a letter to Gadkari, Kejriwal said he was feeling sorry for making “certain statements, without regard to its verifiability, which seem to have hurt you…
“I have nothing personal against you. I regret the same. Let us put the incident behind us and bring the court proceedings to a closure.”
He also suggested to the Union Shipping and Transport Minister that “we should put our energy to serve the people of this country in the spirit of mutual respect”.
Consequent to the regret, Gadkari and Kejriwal later filed a joint application in the Patiala House Court, seeking withdrawal of the defamation case.
“Kejriwal has acknowledged that (the) complainant (Gadkari) was hurt on account of unverified allegations and expressed regret, in the larger public interest” and that “the complainant does not wish to pursue the defamation case”, read the application.
In 2014, Gadkari had filed the defamation suit against Kejriwal after he named him in a list of “corrupt politicians”.
Kejriwal has been dragged to courts in several defamation cases by various political leaders, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
Last week, the AAP leader wrote to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia for accusing his of involvement in drug trade without any proof to back the allegations..
The apology triggered a virtual rebellion in the AAP Punjab unit, leaing to the resignation of Bhagwant Mann as its Punjab Unit chief.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
(AAP government completes 3 years on Wednesday)
By Nikhil M. Babu,
New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose government completes three years in office on Wednesday, is now a quieter person vis-a-vis targeting his bitter political rival — Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Kejriwal, with 13 million followers on Twitter, has not tweeted the word “Modi” even once in the past 11 months. His last tweet mentioning Modi was on March 9, 2017. In 2016, he had mentioned “Modi” 124 times in his tweets and 33 times in 2017 — mostly attacking the Prime Minister.
Party leaders and political analysts say the change from tweeting “Modi declares emergency in Delhi”, “dictatorial Modi govt” and “Isn’t Modi govt anti-army” to stopping all mention of Modi’s name follows AAP’s election losses — first in Punjab and Goa and then in Delhi civic polls and a by-election from Rajouri Garden in 2017.
Also, the AAP chief has never tagged Modi (@narendramodi) in any of his tweets in 2017 and 2018 so far. In 2016, he tagged the Prime Minister eight times.
Kejriwal even refrained from personally attacking the Prime Minister when tempers between the central government and Delhi government ran high over disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs in January this year. The AAP said its lawmakers were disqualified at the behest of the BJP government at the Centre.
Party leaders and some political analysts IANS spoke with said it was more of a strategy than an accidental quietude.
A senior party leader said the “conscious decision” was taken in a meeting that Kejriwal convened after last year’s debacle in Delhi civic polls in which the AAP emerged a distant second with 48 seats after the BJP swept the polls by winning 181 seats.
It was a big blow for the AAP that swept the Delhi elections in 2015 by winning 67 out of 70 Assembly seats.
“It (attacking Modi) was not taking us anywhere and we decided to rather focus on governance,” the AAP leader said.
Political analyst Neerja Chowdhury agreed that it “was a definite change in (Kejriwal’s) strategy” to stop attacking Modi personally. “It is evident that the AAP has lost the trust of the middle class and they need to win back the trust if they have to keep Delhi.”
Praveen Rai, another political analyst with the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), said: “We have been seeing a much, much more sober Kejriwal. He is growing as a leader and is becoming a seasoned politician. But he has a long way to go.”
AAP Chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj attributed the shift to “a good communication system (that) keeps reinventing itself” and the party follows that idea.
“Initially people wanted to know why works in Delhi were not being done and we had to explain to them in the first two years. Now people understand that LG is not allowing many works and files go through him,” Bharadwaj said.
He said the strategy of attacking Modi and the central government “served its purpose” and there was no need to repeat it.
(Nikhil M. Babu can be contacted at nikhil.b@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that his government will approach the Supreme Court for a stay on the ongoing sealing drive, after a meeting between the ruling AAP and BJP ended in chaos and a political blame game.
The sealing of shops and businesses — even doctors’ clinics — located in residential premises in the city is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee and implemented by the three BJP-led Municipal Corporations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that their leaders were attacked by the Aam Aadmi Party volunteers near the Chief Minister’s residence, where they had gone for a meeting. On the other hand, the AAP claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders walked out of the meeting.
BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijender Gupta urged Lt Governor Anil Baijal to order a high-level probe into the meeting issue.
“Strongest possible action is essential to ensure such incidents do not recur. Such violence, falsehood, and intolerance on Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom day is tragic,” Gupta said.
On the other hand, Kejriwal said the BJP delegation led by its Delhi unit President Manoj Tiwari walked out of the meeting instead of trying to come up with suggestions that could be presented to the Lt Governor for remedial measures.
Kejriwal said: “All our MLAs and councillors had gathered for the meeting with the BJP delegation. But they refused to have a discussion in front of everyone.”
“There is nothing confidential about it. It is nobody’s personal issue. It is a public matter. I begged them to sit down, discuss, and together find a solution to the sealing drive. But they just walked out,” he said.
Tiwari later said that the AAP should end “urban naxalism” and said that a complaint had been filed at the Civil Lines police station.
“The AAP had over 150 supporters at the meeting. We wanted a meeting in a closed room. They misbehaved with our women Mayors and our MLA Vijender Gupta and disrupted the meeting. This is is highly condemnable,” Tiwari told reporters.
After the meeting ended, with both sides blaming each other, Kejriwal visited many markets, including in Hauz Khas, Sadar Bazar, Chandni Chowk, and Hudston Lane to take stock of the sealing drive.
Addressing a gathering in Meherchand Market in South Delhi, the Chief Minister said that the AAP government was “totally against sealing occurring in the city”.
“In the next two to three days, the Delhi government will file a petition in the Supreme Court to get a stay on the sealing drive,” Kejriwal said.
“We will put all your problems in the petition and get a stay from the Supreme Court,” the Chief Minister said.
Kejriwal said that traders were not given notice before the sealing and termed the drive as “hooliganism”.
The Chief Minister said that he had written a letter to the Lt Governor to urge him to implement four steps to put an end to the drive.
Kejriwal said that the Lt Governor and the central government have the powers to implement these steps and they can end the drive in 24 hours if they wish to do so.
AAP leader Dilip Pandey sat on a hunger strike near the Civic Centre in Central Delhi, alleging that the BJP was responsible for the ongoing sealing drive.
Later, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj tweeted that the three Municipal Corporation Commissioners will appear before an Assembly committee on the issue on Wednesday, wherein Delhi officials concerned too will be present.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Government Jobs, News, Politics, Private Jobs
Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi : Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday “pleaded” with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to recruit more pharmacists in government hospitals.
“Today, again, I plead before you with folded hands to please take immediate steps to recruit more pharmacists to provide relief to the patients,” Kejriwal wrote to Baijal.
The letter comes a day after Kejriwal made a surprise visit to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital here and found long queues at the pharmacy.
“My intention is not to find faults or point fingers,” it read.
Last week, vacant posts in the hospitals became a flashpoint between Baijal and Kejriwal with both blaming each other for the delay in making appointments.
Kejriwal had told Baijal that 2,169 posts were lying vacant in hospitals as the latter had approved a decision to hire only retired personnel, and added that not enough retired personnel were available.
He alleged that the elected government was being kept in the dark about the decision and said: “I would also be grateful if necessary directions are issued to all officers to stop hiding files from the elected government.”
Responding to the Chief Minister, Baijal had said that the proposal to appoint retired employees to the vacancies was moved by the Health and Family Welfare Department on directions of the Chief Minister in a meeting on August 8, 2017.
“The minutes of that meeting were also issued by the CM Office. Therefore, it is surprising that the Chief Minister has now raised questions regarding the filling up of vacant posts with retired personnel,” Baijal had said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused the BJP of dividing India on Hindu-Muslim lines and said it had done in three years what Pakistan and its ISI could not do in 60 years.
“Pakistan’s biggest dream is to divide Hindustan on the lines of Hindus and Muslims. Those who’re dividing the country on the lines of Hindus and Muslims are ISI agents,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said at the party’s National Conference here.
“Under the veil of patriots, they’re anti-nationals. They want to weaken the country. This dream has been harboured by Pakistan. What Inter-Services Intelligence could not do in 60 years, the BJP has done in three years,” he said and asked voters in Gujarat to defeat the BJP.
Thousands of party workers participated in the conference at the Ramlila Maidan here, from where the India Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare started and later gave birth to the AAP party in 2012. The event drew participation from 22 states.
Talking about the December Gujarat elections, Kejriwal said: “I request the people of Gujarat to give your vote to the candidate or party who can defeat the BJP.”
“If somewhere, the AAP is winning, give your vote to AAP. If any other party is winning, give the vote to them. But defeat the BJP,” Kejriwal said.
Speaking on the occasion, AAP founder-member Kumar Vishwas said the party had moved away from the path it set out on and has to find the right way forward.
“Don’t you think we have gone somewhere else from where we were moving to five years ago? We have to find the right way,” the AAP leader said.
He also called for introspection on the part of the AAP leadership and cadres. “We should think about ourselves as to where we started five years ago and where we are now.”A
Vishwas said some party leaders do not talk about social activist Anna Hazare, under whose leadership many of them participated in the 2011 anti-corruption movement. “Anna was the creator of this campaign.”
Referring to the AAP National Council meeting held this month, he said his name was not in the list of speakers at the event. However, he said, he will not go anywhere and stay in the party.
In October, AAP revoked the suspension of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had accused Vishwas of being a traitor. In May, Khan was suspended, days after making the accusation and Vishwas was named AAP incharge of Rajasthan.
While thousands of party volunteers in the crowd sported the trademark AAP white cap with the party symbol “broom”, many like Munesh Rani, 53, had the broom symbol and “AAP” painted on their cheeks.
AAP party flags with Kejriwal’s face and party symbol dotted the ground as volunteers waved them as AAP leaders spoke from the stage.
Party leaders, including Delhi Ministers Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai, AAP Spokesperson Ashutosh, National Secretary Pankaj Gupta, as well as Punjab MP Bhagwant Mann spoke on the occasion, as were a large number of AAP MLAs from Delhi and Punjab as well as AAP corporators from the national capital.
—IANS
