Delhi Yamuna row: Kejriwal raps EC, Haryana govt

Kejriwal, who visited the ECI office on Friday morning to submit his response, said that his remarks were only in direct reference to the high level of ammonia contamination in the raw water being supplied from Haryana

New Delhi

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal speaks to the media. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged he was being “hounded” by the top leadership of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over a complaint lodged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against him for his remarks on “poisoning” of the Yamuna.

Kejriwal, who visited the ECI office on Friday morning to submit his response, said that his remarks were only in direct reference to the high level of ammonia contamination in the raw water being supplied from Haryana to Delhi and that any other inference from his statement was incorrect.

“If the CEC doesn’t take action against Haryana Govt. who have been perpetrators of this above incident, you will be normalising such ghastly actions in electoral politics. In future, riparian states which have the same government as the centre can use such unethical tactics to influence elections even at the cost of large scale public misery. ‘Water’ could be used as a weapon to win elections if this behaviour goes unchecked,” Kejriwal said in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

In a post on X, ECI said: “The Commission gave a patient hearing to AAP leader Shri Arvind Kejriwal, at a very short notice today and received his reply. The Full Commission , without getting swayed by personal insinuations and offensive strategy being in play, decided to examine the reply in detail and take decision(s) on merit.”

Hitting out at the BJP government in Haryana, Kejriwal said: “There was a deliberate conspiracy on the part of Haryana CM, who happens to be from the BJP, to influence Delhi elections by sending highly polluted waters to Delhi. He knew very well that this would create artificial water scarcity in Delhi, whose blame would lie on the AAP government in Delhi. This would have rendered almost half of Delhi without water and would have created huge public misery for almost 10 million people. A criminal case should be registered against him for attempting to cause serious miseries to the people of India’s capital.”

Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini hit back at Kejriwal, accusing the AAP government of shifting blame to hide its failures.

“No work has been done in Delhi over the past 10 years, and Arvind Kejriwal resorts to cheap politics to cover up his failures. For the last decade, Kejriwal has forced the people of Delhi to drink contaminated water. PM Narendra Modi allocated ₹8,500 crore for cleaning drains, ponds, repairing the sewage system, and other related works in Delhi, but the results have not been visible. The people of Delhi will close the ‘shop of lies’ on February 5,” Saini said.