INDIA bloc leaders put up a united front at protest seeking Kejriwal’s release
Several senior INDIA bloc leaders visited Jantar Mantar on Tuesday to lend support to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s protest against the incarceration of its national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi CM was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the now-withdrawn excise policy and was granted bail by the Supreme Court. However, he is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with a separate case related to the liquor ‘scam’ being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Those who assembled at Jantar Mantar included Congress leader and MP Gaurav Gogoi, Samajwadi Party chief and MP Akhilesh Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and MP from Tiruchi N. Siva, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India leader D. Raja, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and MP Sanjay Raut, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha, and Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose, among others.
Addressing the gathering, the SP chief said, “Today, Azam Khan’s entire family is also being harassed in Uttar Pradesh. AAP and the SP are not afraid.”
He added, “We all are as worried about Kejriwal’s health as his family and party workers. All the cases against him should be dismissed, and he should be released from jail.”
Mr. Pawar said the nation saw that the BJP-led Central government was angry with Mr. Kejriwal’s good governance, which is why laws were violated to send him and other Opposition leaders to jail.
“It is for the first time in this country that a Chief Minister has been sent to jail for making a policy. The Delhi government has not done anything wrong. It is the job of the State government to bring new policies,” he said.
Mr. Yechury said, “As soon as they felt that Kejriwal would come out [on bail] in the ED case, they got a fake CBI case registered against him. Kejriwal’s health is bad. He should be released as soon as possible.”
‘Protest against whom?’
Attacking the Opposition, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “One fails to understand against whom the INDIA bloc organised the protest because the decision on keeping Kejriwal in jail rests with the judiciary.”
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