Political opponents attack Arvind Kejriwal after ‘apology spree’

A few hours earlier Kejriwal had apologised to senior BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal for accusing them of corruption.

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal’s “apology spree” to end a string of defamation cases filed against him has come under attack from his political opponents.

Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal during the Legislative Assembly of National Capital Territory of budget session at Delhi Vidhan Sabha in New Delhi, India. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

The Congress has advised the chief minister to change his name while the BJP said the “anarchic character” of the “NGO politics” practised by the AAP leader stood exposed.

“He should change his name to Arvind Sorry Kejriwal. This is just the beginning of his trail of saying sorry, and not the end,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said on Monday.

A few hours earlier Kejriwal had apologised to senior BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal for accusing them of corruption.

Both the leaders have withdrawn their defamation suites but the AAP leader still faces more than 30 court cases, including 11 for defamation, across the country.

Kejriwal should apologise to the people of Delhi and the country for deceiving them and poor governance, Surjewala said.

BJP’s Manoj Tiwari, too, took a dig, saying Kejriwal was a regular violator of law and had misused the right to information act against his political opponents in connivance with “a section of media which prefers to run anti-establishment news”.

“The anarchic character of NGO politics practiced by Arvind Kejriwal and his compatriots today stands exposed before the people of the country,” the North-East Delhi MP said.

Kejriwal had last week apologised to Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former Punjab minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia for calling him a “drug lord”.

The move came as a shock to the AAP’s Punjab unit that had made drug abuse and alleged involvement of SAD leaders in the illegal trade the main issue in the 2017 state election.

AAP’s Punjab unit president Bhagwant Mann and co-president Aman Arora quit their posts in protest, forcing Kejriwal into damage-control mode. The party seems to have managed to buy peace with the Punjab unit, for now.