Lone ranger Kejriwal spends time meditating in Tihar jail

Apart from a glass of sugar-free tea, editions of popular English and some Hindi dailies were among the few things that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal requested the authorities at west Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Thursday.

Described as a ‘morning person’ by prison authorities, Kejriwal rose pretty early after spending a night in jail and went for a prolonged walk. He then participated in a meditation session with other inmates.

“The ward in which he is lodged, the Meditation Ward, has a lot of empty space,” said a senior jail official.

“He got up around 6:30 am and after a morning walk for an hour, sat down next to other inmates to meditate,” the official added.

When asked whether he had any followers or pro-AAP inmates walking up to him to ask him how he was, prison sources said Kejriwal seemed to have failed to get their attention.

“It might have happened solely because no one is allowed to talk in the (meditation) ward, but even when he was walking in the courtyard, no one else seemed to be interested in his presence,” said another official.

After meditating, the AAP chief sat down with a bunch of newspapers and carefully went through each one as he sipped sugar-free tea before returning to his cell.

In all, jail authorities insisted that Kejriwal had settled for ‘routine’ jail life on the eve of his release from prison.

According to Tihar jail authorities, the last time the AAP convener was among them had been during the peak of the Anna Hazare movement in mid-2011.