Can lay down my life for country: Delhi CM Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that hooliganism will not help in the country’s progress even as the Delhi Police arrested eight people in connection with the vandalism at his house.

A day after members of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), vandalised property at his official residence, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the country and added that hooliganism will not help in the country’s progress even as the Delhi Police arrested eight people in connection with the incident and AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj moved the high court demanding a probe by a special investigation team.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and transport minister Kailash Gahlot flag off electric auto-rickshaws at IP Depot in New Delhi on Thursday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

“Kejriwal is not important. I am an insignificant man in the larger context. I am a simple Aam Aadmi. I am ready to sacrifice my life for the greater good of the country if it helps. But I strongly believe that such hooliganism will not help the progress of our motherland. If we have to tread the path of development, build an India of the 21st century, we need to build a society that believes in love, peace, harmony and brotherhood,” the Delhi chief minister said while talking to the reporters on the sidelines of an event on Thursday.

Members of the BJYM led by BJP MP from Bangalore South Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday protested outside the Civil Lines residence of the Delhi CM against the latter’s remarks on the movie The Kashmir Files in the Delhi assembly last Thursday. They alleged that Kejriwal mocked the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. The protesters threw paint at the gate of the CM’s house and vandalised a boom barrier and a CCTV. They also clashed with the police and jumped the barricades to reach the CM’s residence.

Kejriwal said, “We wasted 75 years doing this cheap politics of hatred, violence and hooliganism. What does it say about our country and our politics if the biggest party of India, the one which rules our Union, acts like this? What will the youth think about its leaders? They will think this is the right way and they should adopt it too. This would only hinder the path of our development.”

Harsh Malhotra, Delhi BJP general secretary, said, “It was a routine protest. It was not done to harm any leader. Kejriwal and the AAP was making false statements to divert the people’s attention from the real issue which is his (CM’s) statement in the assembly on Kashmiri Pandits.”

The Delhi Police on Thursday said eight people have been arrested in connection with the violence near CM’s house on Wednesday.

Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police (north), said the eight suspects were identified from the CCTV footage of the incident. “They have been identified as Chander Kant (27 years), Pradeep Tiwari (27), Raju Kumar Singh (28), Jitender Singh Bisht (40), Naveen Kumar (38), Bablu Kumar Rajput (35), Niraj Dixit (25) and Sunny Kushwaha (25). Three of them are students, and others are employed. The suspects are residents of Kirti Nagar, Jahangirpuri, Nehru Vihar, Azadpur among others,” he said.

He added that more people could be arrested in the case on the basis of footage from CCTV cameras. “We have deployed several teams to trace and arrest others,” Kalsi said.

Reacting to the incident on Wednesday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia alleged a “plot to kill Kejriwal” by the BJP. “As it could not defeat Arvind Kejriwal in the Punjab polls, the BJP now wants to kill him (hatya karna chahta hai). Today’s attack on the chief minister’s house shows that the BJP, with the help of police, wants to kill Kejriwal. We will lodge a formal complaint against this,” he said at a press conference.

Meanwhile, in a petition filed before the Delhi high court AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj demanded high-level probe into the incident, and alleged that the vandalism appears to have been carried out with Delhi Police’s “complicity”.

Bharadwaj demanded a probe into the role of the city police officers who were responsible for maintaining the security cordon outside the Delhi CM’s residence. His petition said, “Those who were charged with the protection of the Delhi CM, that is, the Delhi Police, completely abdicated their duty, without any regard for the fact that they were protecting an elected constitutional functionary and the fact that he was given Z+ security by Delhi police itself.”

“The police’s inaction was in blatant violation of the high court’s August 22, 2017 direction in which the Delhi Police was directed to ensure that no unnecessary protest takes place on the road in front of the Delhi CM’s house as it is a residential area,” Bharadwaj said.

The MLA, in his petition, also said that while he strongly supports the right to protest peacefully, even if such protest is against the Delhi government, violence cannot and ought not to be permitted and condoned.