Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal plays “ruthless dirty politics" and is “grossly insulting the courts" with his statements, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview with CNN-News18 on Thursday.
Kejriwal has been telling voters that he would not need to return to jail if the opposition alliance wins the Lok Sabha elections on June 4. The court has asked him to surrender by June 2. “He is politicising the whole legal process…if he thinks this is going to benefit him, he is being very short-sighted. What he is saying is a complete insult to the judiciary," Sitharaman said.
She said courts had given him bail till June 2 on the grounds of giving a level-playing field to campaign. “By repeatedly saying and appealing to people that if you press AAP symbol, I will not need to go to jail — is he trying to say that the courts are doing politics or courts are going by basis of votes which are coming?" Sitharaman told CNN-News18.
She asked if Kejriwal was not trying to influence people by saying it is not about the judiciary but is political. “This is a gross insult to courts and they should take cognisance of it," the minister said, She added that Kejriwal was underestimating the people of the country like Indira Gandhi did when the Allahabad High Court went against her.
Sitharaman also took objection to Kejriwal saying the Prevention of Money Laundering Act strengthened under the Narendra Modi government had made regular bail difficult for him. “For a CM who came into power in the name of eradicating corruption, he is now doing petty bargaining with the people or courts saying look forget all this, I want my freedom and political liberty but I am not willing to answer serious questions being asked of me," the minister told CNN-News18 in the interview.
She said it was Kejriwal who had first asked for the strictest of laws to punish corrupt people. “He said he had a sackful of evidence against Shiela Dikshit, a much-respected CM of Delhi. “Where is that evidence? He said ‘sab ke sab ko jail bhijvaunga’; is the law any stricter now than it was then which you had?" Sitharaman asked.
She said that while Kejriwal wanted to send all to jail, he is there himself now. “Even courts today are not able to give him bail. He is building a false narrative. Either he does not believe in the intelligence of the people or he believes in manipulating them. In either case, it is absolutely condemnable. The people make their choices, don’t underestimate them. It just shows how ruthless dirty politics he plays," Sitharaman told CNN-News18.
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