Press Trust of India
New Delhi, July 17: In the midst of his bitter fight with the Centre on a range of issues, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Sunday accused the Modi dispensation of turning its relationship with Delhi government into an “India-Pakistan” type situation and alleged that BJP President Amit Shah was “micromanaging” functioning of central probe agency CBI.
In the first edition of his ‘Talk to AK’ show, seen as his answer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Maan Ki Baat’ and an attempt to increase Aam Aadmi Party’s national connect, the Delhi Chief Minister said his government would have achieved four times of what has been done for the city in the last 17 months had “obstacles” not been put by the Centre.
Kejriwal touched upon a number of contentious issue including appointment of 21 Parliamentary Secretaries, arrest of a top bureaucrat by CBI and transfer of officers even as he taunted the Prime Minister saying, he was the “only corrupt Chief Minister in the country in the eyes of” Modi.
The Delhi Chief Minister, in the nearly two-hour-long programme that began with a monologue followed by a question and answer session, alleged that the Centre was trying to “break” the AAP government and that Shah was micromanaging CBI, adding, “but every dog has his day and all these will soon come to an end.”
Kejriwal, the AAP national convenor, indicated that the party may contest the next assembly polls in Gujarat, alleging that an “atmosphere of suppression” was prevailing there and people wanted to overthrow the BJP regime.
He said the Delhi government will conduct an “opnion poll” and not a “referendum” on the issue of full statehood for the city and bringing subjects such as police and land under the jurisdiction of the state government.
Soon after the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, he had tweeted, “After UK referendum, Delhi will soon have a referendum on full statehood.”
Justifying his government’s spendings on advertisement, he insisted that it spent only Rs 75 crore not 526 crore in the last fiscal and accused the RSS of spreading rumours on the issue, saying it has no parallel in the world in spreading rumours.