AAP spokesman Raghav Chadha has said that the movement of Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, is still restricted.
New Delhi:
A day after claiming that Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had been placed under “house arrest”, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said today that his movement remains restricted by the Delhi police, who have denied the charge.
No matter how many policemen you deploy, or BJP leaders protest, outside the Chief Minister’s residence, we will not give him permission to turn Delhi stadiums into a jail to incarcerate protesting farmers, said National Party spokesman Aam Aadmi. , Raghav Chaddha, on Wednesday.
“Mr. Kejriwal’s movement continues to be restricted by the Delhi police as instructed by Interior Minister Amit Shah,” Chadhha told reporters a day after his party alleged that the head of the AAP had to cancel all his meetings because they had put him under “house arrest.” for supporting farmers, thousands of whom have been camping along Delhi’s borders for two weeks demanding the repeal of three contentious farm laws.
The complaint has been dismissed by the Delhi police, who added that Mr. Kejriwal had attended a meeting at 11 am.
“They have opened a back door, but the main door of his residence remains closed,” said Chaddha, who according to the PTI news agency added that there is an atmosphere of “undeclared emergency” around the prime minister’s residence.
The top leader said the move was a tactic to pressure the Delhi government to turn its stadiums into prisons for farmers demanding the repeal of the three “black laws”.
“Why is the chowkidar (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) so afraid of sevadar (Arvind Kejriwal)? What revenge are you trying to exact? … Are they making him pay to support the farmers?” the MLA said the center’s position towards farmers is compared to the AAP chief’s position of “being a volunteer in service.”
On Monday, the day before Bharat Bandh, the Chief Minister of Delhi had visited the Singhu border to review the arrangements made by his government for the farmers, whom he had called his guests, and said that he and the AAP would participate in the closing.
The following day, his party claimed that Mr. Kejriwal had been placed under “house arrest” as no one was allowed to meet with the Chief Minister, including ministers and party leaders.
The accusations were dismissed by Delhi police as “unfounded” and later said that security was routine. The Delhi police accepted that some restrictions had been imposed, but that was only due to a group of BJP leaders protesting in front of Mr. Kejriwal’s residence.
However, the AAP maintains that the councilors ‘protest was a ruse to prevent Kejriwal from joining the farmers’ protest.
The “house arrest” claim invited mockery of cricketer-turned-BJP politician Gautam Gambhi, who said Kejriwal’s support of farmers was a pretense and that he was only interested in seizing power in Punjab, where the AAP is the main opposition party.
The comment came in the context of Arvind Kejriwal being accused of having “double standards” in agricultural laws by the Chief Minister of Punjab. Earlier, Amarinder Singh had called his counterpart saying that if the head of the AAP was really concerned about farmers, he would have passed bills that countered the “black laws” of the Center, such as Punjab.
Farmers’ protest against the three laws continues, as talks with the Center have so far been inconclusive.
A day after his meeting with Union Interior Minister Amit Shah failed to resolve the impasse, with both sides holding firm to their positions, the government said that the minimum support price (MSP) for crops a written proposal will be maintained and submitted for farmers to consider.
Farmer groups held a meeting on one of the Delhi-Haryana borders with union leaders who said they would settle for nothing less than the removal of the legislation.
A large meeting scheduled for today with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, the sixth since the protests began, was canceled yesterday.
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