In an unprecedented incident, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal decided to televise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with the Chief Ministers of 10 states suffering the worst COVID-19 crisis which was supposed to be behind closed doors.
When it came to PM Modi’s attention, he reprimanded Kejriwal for broadcasting the conversation live. Modi said that it was ‘strictly against tradition and protocol’ to show a live telecast of an in-house meeting.
“My belief is that if there is a national plan against Covid then the centre and all state governments can work together in that direction,” Kejriwal said when PM Modi interrupted him.
“What is happening… this is strictly against our tradition, our protocol… that some Chief Minister is showing a live telecast of an in-house meeting,” Modi said.
“This is not appropriate, we should always maintain restraint,” he added.
Kejriwal then apologised and said that he would see to it that such a situation doesn’t arise in the future.
“Ok sir, we will be careful in future.” Kejriwal said.
“Our departed souls, those who have died because of corona, may their families get the strength to bear it. If there was any mistake on my part, I have said anything harsh or if there is anything wrong in my conduct, then I apologise. We will follow instructions given to us,” he added.
Delhi Chief Minister’s office also issued an apology.
“Today, the CM address was shared live because there has never been any instruction, written or verbal, from central govt that the said interaction could not be shared live.” Delhi CMO’s statement read.
“There have been multiple occasions of similar interactions where matters of public importance which had no confidential information were shared live. However, if any inconvenience was caused we highly regret that,” he added.
Sources in the government said that Kejriwal used the PM-CM conference on COVID-19 as a platform to play politics, adding that he “chose to spread lies on vaccine prices despite knowing that Centre does not keep one vaccine dose with itself and shares with states only.”
“Kejriwal has descended to a new low. For the first time, private conversations of PMs meeting with CM was televised. His entire speech was not meant for any solution but for playing politics and evade responsibility.” sources in the government further said.