Can lay down my life for country: Kejriwal
A day after some members of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), vandalised property at his official residence, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the country and added that hooliganism will not help in the country’s progress even as the Delhi Police arrested eight people in connection with the incident and AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj move the high court demanding a probe by a special investigation team.
“Kejriwal is not important. I am an insignificant man in the larger context. I am a simple aam aadmi. I am ready to sacrifice my life for the greater good of the country if it helps. But I strongly believe that such hooliganism will not help the progress of our motherland. If we have to tread the path of development, build an India of the 21st century, we need to build a society that believes in love, peace, harmony and brotherhood,” the Delhi chief minister said while talking to the reporters on the sidelines of an event on Thursday.
Members of the BJYM led by BJP MP from Bangalore South Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday protested outside the Civil Lines residence of the Delhi CM against the latter’s remarks on the movie The Kashmir Files in the Delhi assembly last Thursday. They alleged that Kejriwal mocked the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. Some of the protesters threw paint at the gate of the CM’s house and vandalised a boom barrier and a CCTV camera. They also clashed with the police and jumped the barricades.
Kejriwal said, “We wasted 75 years doing this cheap politics of hatred, violence and hooliganism. What does it say about our country and our politics if the biggest party of India, the one which rules our Union, acts like this? What will the youth think about its leaders? They will think this is the right way and they should adopt it too. This would only hinder the path of our development.” Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said his party does not believe in violence. “The BJP doesn’t believe in violence. Our workers were very upset because of Kejriwal’s statement in the assembly where he mocked Kashmiri Pandits. The CM has not apologised for what he said. We have faith in the legal process.”
Police on Thursday said eight people have been arrested in connection with the violence near the CM’s house. Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police (north), said the eight suspects were identified from the CCTV footage of the incident.
He said more people could be arrested in the case on the basis of CCTV camera footage. “We have deployed several teams to trace and arrest others,” Kalsi said.
Bharadwaj moves HC for probe into vandalism
Meanwhile, in a petition filed before the Delhi high court AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj demanded a high-level probe into the incident, and alleged that the vandalism appears to have been carried out with Delhi Police’s “complicity”. Bharadwaj demanded a probe into the role of the city police officers who were responsible for maintaining the security cordon outside the Delhi CM’s residence.