Arvind Kejriwal arrested: Under BJP government, fight against corruption is finally underway

As the Chief Minister of Delhi, he had all the more reason to set an example. In fact, Kejriwal’s manipulative tactics and the way he has lowered the benchmark for morality in politics have become an embarrassment for Delhiites. Today, Delhi has set the sorry precedent of a sitting chief minister being arrested. Kejriwal’s arrest is the blackest day in the history of Delhi’s polity. Many stalwarts of Indian politics, who played an important role in nation-building, have been from Delhi. The eyes of not only the nation, but other countries too, are always set on Delhi as it is the capital of the largest democracy and the fastest-growing economy in the world.

Kejriwal never had any intention of cooperating with the investigation into this scam. He told Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and party workers to not fear jail. But in his own case, he skipped summon after summon. This shows that he had skeletons in his closet and he knew it would be easy for investigating agencies to implicate him.

The way this whole scam was carried out has left Delhiites in shock. Here are a chief minister and a political party which came to power on the plank of weeding out corruption. Kejriwal and his colleagues went hammer and tongs against the Congress party and its leaders. He also swore that he would have no truck with the Congress party.

Today, he is in alliance with Congress — a party that is a symbol of corruption and nepotism. There is great irony in the Congress leadership now defending Kejriwal. But one can understand this. There is a saying in Hindi, “chor-chor mauserey bhai” (“thieves are brothers in arms”), that explains the relationship between the two parties.

The list of sins committed by Kejriwal and his party colleagues is unending. Two of his former cabinet colleagues, Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia, and one of his Rajya Sabha MPs, Sanjay Singh, have been in jail for quite some time. When they were arrested on charges of corruption and money laundering, Kejriwal and other AAP leaders cried hoarse, raising the bogey of political vendetta. But the truth has been laid bare, with all three having been denied bail by the courts despite repeated attempts.

It is simple: If they are innocent, why are the courts not granting them bail? If Kejriwal is innocent, why couldn’t he get protection from the courts? Why was he avoiding joining the probe? The courts of law would always quash any illegal arrest.

It is also important to note here that the ED is an independent investigative agency. There is a lot of chatter these days about the active role played by the ED and CBI in nabbing corrupt people. They have been given a free hand by the Narendra Modi government. It was the Congress-led governments that had not done so, because of which the central probe agencies couldn’t perform their duties as they should have. But the Modi government’s motto is clear “na khaunga, na khane doonga (neither I will indulge in corruption, nor I will let anyone else do so)”. Before 2014, corrupt politicians would protect each other across party lines. But PM Modi has set the record straight — no corrupt person will be spared. And the agencies that are supposed to be the watchdogs of the government have been signalled to go full throttle against corruption.

It is clear that this is the beginning of the end of a façade called Arvind Kejriwal. He duped Anna Hazare and hijacked the anti-corruption movement by forging a political party and forming a government whose lifeline is corruption. The liquor scam is only one instance of corruption — there have been many others, including the crores of rupees spent on luxuries at the CM’s residence. There have been major scams in the Delhi Jal Board, Health Department and Education Department. The list is long. Delhiites are watching with their own eyes how their precious tax money has been gobbled up by Kejriwal and his band of brothers — comrades in arms, partners in crime.

The writer is BJP MP from North East Delhi and former president of Delhi, BJP