Senior AAP leaders, ministers, MLAs, councilors, workers and supporters observed a day-long ‘Samuhik Upwas’ (collective fast) on Sunday at Jantar Mantar here in protest against the arrest of party’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, who attended the ‘Samuhik Upwas’, said supporters of democracy all over the country are on hunger strike. “The supporters of democracy all over the country and even the world are on a day-long hunger strike. This battle has now started against those who buy MLAs of the elected governments and bring down their governments. We can protect the Constitution of India. They wanted to break the AAP, but we became stronger,” Goel said.
Meanwhile, Delhi Cabinet Minister and AAP leader Atishi reiterated that the money trail from liquor trader Sarath Reddy in the liquor policy scam can be traced to the BJP. “Sarath Reddy donated Rs 55 crore to the BJP. Why has the BJP not been raided, or accused, why has the BJP’s National President not been summoned or arrested? ED, CBI act as political weapons of BJP”, she said.
“People of Delhi love Arvind Kejriwal. They don’t think of him as a CM but as their son, or brother. All want bail for Arvind Kejriwal. BJP’s ED and CBI haven’t been able to show a single penny of liquor scam from the leaders of AAP. If there is any money trail in this issue, it’s from liquor trader Sarath Reddy to the BJP,” the AAP leader said.
The AAP leader dared the Central probe agency to reveal details of the action taken against leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in connection with alleged money laundering cases.
Addressing the media at a press conference on Saturday, AAP leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai disclosed the party’s plans for a congregation at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh in Punjab, where AAP MLAs, ministers, MPs, councilors, and officials would join the public in abstaining from food. Simultaneously, in 25 states across India and key international hubs including New York, Boston, Toronto, Washington DC, Melbourne, and London, supporters would extend their support to Arvind Kejriwal through community fasting, Rai said.
Kejriwal, who was arrested by the ED on March 21, was sent to judicial custody till April 15 and is lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with a money-laundering case linked to an excise policy scam.