INDIA bloc parties hold joint rally in Delhi to express solidarity with Kejriwal

The opposition INDIA alliance on Tuesday came together in a display of solidarity with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The constituent parties took part in a protest in the national capital over Kejriwal’s “unjustifiable” arrest and incarceration and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government of putting the health of the Aam Aadmi Party leader, who suffers from diabetes, in jeopardy.

Leaders from all the major INDIA alliance parties took part in a public rally organised by the AAP at Jantar Mantar, Delhi's protest hotspot, their speeches focusing on the Centre's alleged misuse of the investigating agencies against Kejriwal and other opposition leaders, making a statement of solidarity with Kejriwal, declaring that the opposition parties were together in their fight against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “dictatorial” way of functioning and referring to the BJP's diminished presence in Parliament after the Lok Sabha elections.

Kejriwal's wife Sunita was present on the stage along with senior leaders of the AAP and legislators from Delhi and Punjab as leaders from the INDIA alliance partners arrived to take part in the protest.

There was speculation on whether the Congress, which has carried out a tough balancing act on the issue of Kejriwal's arrest since the AAP is a rival in the coming Assembly elections, would attend the protest rally. However, the party stuck to the line it has adopted nationally about the investigating agencies going after opposition leaders and attended the event. Congress's Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari and his Lok Sabha counterpart Gaurav Gogoi took part in the agitation.

Tiwari said he and his party colleague Gogoi were representing the party's top leadership—Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi—at the event and were there to extend on their behalf complete moral support to Kejriwal.

“A chief minister who was elected with a huge majority was arrested. We opposed it then. And we continue to stand with you. If the BJP thinks by arresting our leaders they will break us, they are wrong. We will not bow before them,” Tiwari said.

“The prime minister boasts about having a 56-inch chest. Then why is he hiding behind the ED and the CBI? They arrested chief ministers, sealed our bank accounts...if elections would have been held in an impartial and transparent manner, we would have been in power and they would have been sitting in the opposition,” Gogoi said.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said grave injustice was being done to Kejriwal and the purpose of his arrest was to send a message about the power wielded by the ruling dispensation. “But the people have taught them a lesson. The people of UP have not just defeated the BJP, they have also by voting for the Samajwadi Party and the INDIA alliance stopped the BJP from getting a majority. The prime minister may have won, but in terms of votes, he has lost,” Yadav said.

NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar spoke about the BJP-ruled Centre's alleged attempt to destablise the AAP government in Delhi by placing Kejriwal and other leaders of the party behind bars. “The people of Delhi know very well how to teach arrogant leaders a lesson. They will teach the BJP a lesson,” Pawar said.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury noted that even if the BJP is below the majority figure and its strength has reduced by 63 MPs, its attitude has not changed. “They still behave as if they are not just kings but emperors,” he said. Yechury said the case against Kejriwal was clearly motivated by politics.

CPI General Secretary D. Raja said Kejriwal's arrest was a prime example of the BJP-ruled Centre's attempts to use the ED and the CBI to target opposition leaders, intimidate them and cripple their parties.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut struck an aggressive note as he said the tables would turn on the BJP when the INDIA alliance comes to power and the same ED and CBI which they have misused would handcuff them.

TMC's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose said she had come with a message from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the only woman chief minister in the country, for Sunita. “The TMC will together with the AAP fight against dictatorship. Mamata Banerjee has offered full support to Sunita Kejriwal,” she said.

Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi N. Siva, representing the DMK, said the BJP often speaks about the Emergency, but it has put in place an undeclared Emergency.

Sunita spoke in the end, and in an emotion-filled speech spoke about Kejriwal's health condition behind bars. She said he has been suffering from diabetes for the last 22 years and is dependent on insulin to keep his sugar level under check. 

“Insulin was not given to him in jail. As part of a conspiracy, his health was neglected. He wears a sensor around his arm which tells his sugar level...on five occasions, as per the reading of the sensor, his sugar level has dipped below 50 and this has happened while he was sleeping. It is a miracle that nothing happened to him,” she said.

She hit out at Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena for having written a letter to the state chief secretary in which he alleged “willful consumption of low calorie intake” by Kejriwal.

“They foisted a false case on him; they are playing with his health and they have also made efforts to defame an elected chief minister,” Sunita said.