Manish Sisodia
'BJP wants to stop good work': Arvind Kejriwal on Manish Sisodia arrest
New Delhi/IBNS: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to sabotage his government's work in the health and education sectors by arresting his deputy Manish Sisodia.
The liquor scam, he declared, "is an excuse" and if Sisodia joins the BJP, "he would be free by tomorrow".
"Corruption is not the issue. The motive was to stop the good work done by the ministers," Kejriwal said in his first interaction with the media since Sisodia's arrest.
Sisodia, the face of the AAP government's work in health and education, was arrested on Sunday in connection with the alleged liquor scam, which has been scrapped now.
He has been named as the accused number one in the case. He has already resigned as the minister.
The 18 portfolios he was handling have been divided up between two of the remaining five ministers.
"The BJP wants to stop AAP. Ever since we won Punjab, they can't stand us," Kejriwal said.
Stating that AAP's best work has been in the education and health sectors, Kejriwal said Manish Sisodia as the education minister transformed the entire education model and Satyendar Jain gave Delhi the Mohalla clinics.
"They have done India proud," he said drawing comparisons with the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and elsewhere, where "they could not fix a school or hospital" even after so many years.
"I assure the people of Delhi that this will not happen. Delhi's good work will continue and with greater pace," he said.
Since Sisodia's arrest, the AAP has been flagging a conspiracy theory, alleging that BJP has unleashed the Central agencies on their leaders to trash Sisodia's achievements and undo the work by the Delhi government.
The BJP has been in attack mode ever since Delhi's Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena filed a complaint alleging irregularities in the now-withdrawn excise policy of 2021.
After Sisodia's arrest, the saffron party had called him the "liquor minister" and accused him of not having any "moral compass" -- a series of attacks that have been seen as a strike at AAP's anti-corruption credentials.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
