Ready to sacrifice life for country: Kejriwal
NEW DELHI: A day after 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. The protesters threw paint at the gate of the CM’S house and vandalised a boom barrier and a CCTV. They also clashed with the police and jumped the barricades to reach the CM’S residence.
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.”
Harsh Malhotra, Delhi BJP general secretary, said, “It was a routine protest. It was not done to harm any leader. Kejriwal was making false statements to divert the people’s attention from the real issue which is his (CM’S) statement in the assembly on Kashmiri Pandits.”
The Delhi Police on Thursday said eight people have been arrested in connection with the violence near CM’S house on Wednesday. Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police (north), said the eight suspects were identified from the CCTV footage of the incident. “They have been identified as Chander Kant (27 years), Pradeep Tiwari (27), Raju Kumar Singh (28), Jitender Singh Bisht (40), Naveen Kumar (38), Bablu Kumar Rajput (35), Niraj Dixit (25) and Sunny Kushwaha (25). Three of them are students, and others are employed. The suspects are residents of Kirti Nagar, Jahangirpuri, Nehru Vihar, Azadpur among others,” he said.
He added that more people could be arrested in the case on the basis of footage from CCTV cameras.
Reacting to the incident on Wednesday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia alleged a “plot to kill Kejriwal” by the BJP.