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Responding to social activist Anna Hazare’s letter to him on the Delhi liquor policy, Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday said that people were “firing from his shoulder”.
Hazare wrote to his former protégé Kejriwal saying he had “forgotten his own ideals” after joining politics and said he was “drunk on power”.
Quoting from Kejriwal’s book ‘Swaraj’, Hazare has said that he wanted to remind him of his earlier stand on liquor. He went on to say that the Delhi government’s policy could have had the effect of boosting alcohol consumption and sale, along with increasing chances of corruption. Hazare said that all this would be detrimental to the public interest.
Kejriwal, along with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who handles the Excise portfolio, and former AAP members Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, and Kumar Vishwas, was part of historic India Against Corruption movement launched by Hazare in 2011 to demand the appointment of a Lokpal. When the decision to form a party was made, Hazare was not on board.
Asked about Hazare’s letter, Kejriwal said Tuesday, “Whenever they (Kejriwal’s rivals) say something and the people do not listen to them, they bring someone forth. During Punjab elections, they said Kejriwal is a terrorist. When people started laughing at them, they brought Kumar Vishwas forward and made him say it. Now they are saying there is a scam in the excise policy, the CBI has not found anything and has given an informal clean chit. The people are not listening to them so they are now firing from Anna Hazare’s shoulder. This is politics,” Kejriwal said.
Regarding the CBI inquiry into the liquor policy, Kejriwal said that despite the raids and questioning, they had not been able to find anything.
“When we are in public life, we have to be ready for scrutiny. The CBI has completed its inquiry. They searched Manish Sisodia’s house for 14 hours and he was questioned for 6-7 hours. Satisfactory answers were given. They did not find anything. Today they searched his locker but did not find anything there either. They are under political pressure so we feel they will arrest him in a week or 10 days. They have informally said they have not found anything. We said in the beginning itself that this is a politically-motivated step,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal was speaking after visiting the hospital that was under construction at Sarita Vihar in Delhi Tuesday. A 330-bed hospital will be ready at the site in another three months.
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