War of words: Union minister hits out at Kejriwal

The acrimonious war of words between the government and Team Anna intensified on Sunday with Union minister Virbhadra Singh threatening to file a criminal defamation suit against Arvind Kejriwal for “maligning” him and the activist bluntly refusing to apologise for his remarks.

The acrimonious war of words between the government and Team Anna intensified on Sunday with Union minister Virbhadra Singh threatening to file a criminal defamation suit against Arvind Kejriwal for “maligning” him and the activist bluntly refusing to apologise for his remarks.

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“He (Kejriwal) has levelled absolutely rubbish charges against me based on lies fed by my political opponents… I intend to file a criminal defamation suit against him,” said the minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Singh, a five-time chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, was named by Team Anna in the list of 14 ministers against whom it has demanded registration of FIR and investigations into allegations of corruption.

Singh said he has written a letter to Kejriwal, asking him to tender an unconditional apology for “maligning” his name, and if the reply is not found satisfactory he (Kejriwal) should be prepared to face legal action.

Kejriwal, however, stuck to his position and said he had not said anything wrong. “I will respond in a week’s time. I have not said anything wrong. There is no question of apology.”

The face-off between Singh and Kejriwal is over the FIR lodged by the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh against the minister in August 2009.