PTI
New Delhi
In the midst of his bitter fight with the Centre on a range of issues, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today 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 “opinion 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.
“If they would not have made this India-Pakistan situation, then work done by us would have been four times. I had told him (PM), forgive me if I have committed any mistake, but please end this irritants. A lot of work has been done. If not for obstacles, the amount of work done would have been four times more.
“Our Assembly passed 14 bills, including on time-bound services delivery, which had the clause of automatic compensation. It's been eight months since this passage of this bill,” Kejriwal said.
Flanked by his deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and music composer Vishal Dadlani - the moderator for the programme, Kejriwal alleged that Delhi has become the “victim” of Centre's confrontational attitude as AAP MLAs are being arrested on “false charges”.
“In PM's eyes there is only one corrupt CM in the country. They want to break us. They enter into settings with other parties.
“Have FIRs been filed against Robert Vadra or Sonia Gandhi or Shivraj Singh Chouhan? They are not scared of me, they are scared of my honesty. The full police force is after us,” he said.
Alleging that Centre was trying to paralise Delhi administration, Kejriwal said his government will soon bring out ads to recruit experts from across for various departments.
