BJP, Cong slam Kejriwal as protests intensify, SC agrees to hear PIL against him

 BJP, Cong slam Kejriwal as protests intensify, SC agrees to hear PIL against him

On the second day of his protest, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday upped the ante, threatening to flood Rajpath, the venue of Republic Day celebrations, with lakhs of supporters demanding action against policemen who refused to carry out a raid on an alleged drug and prostitution ring.

He ruled out any negotiations to scale down the protest, saying the safety of women in the capital is not a matter of negotiation.

"We will continue our protest. How can home minister (Sushilkumar) Shinde sleep when so many crimes are happening in Delhi? When women are unsafe in the city? We won't negotiate," Kejriwal told reporters.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear two PILs seeking action against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and law minister Somnath Bharti for creating chaos in the heart of the capital by going on in an unprecedented 10-day sit-in protest.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said they will hear the PILs on Friday. The petitioners, advocate ML Sharma and another advocate, said the chief minister was supposed to maintain law and order but was instead creating a law and order problem by his ongoing agitation seeking suspension from service of five policemen.

Meanwhile, reacting to Kejriwal led protest, Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that that the protest was a planned conspiracy of the Congress and the AAP.

I will blame Congress for all the drama that is going on. It is a joint conspiracy of the Congress and AAP, and is the formers attempt to divert attention from corruption allegations on their leaders, said Javadekar.

The Congress is ready to bring any kind of situation in the country to reduce the popularity of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, he said.

It is a desperate attempt by the Congress to stop the BJP from winning the elections. Eventually, they will apply their exit plan which also must be ready. Through that they will make the AAP heroes again, because they cannot fight the BJP alone, he added.

He further said that Kejriwal had demeaned patriotism through his statement on Republic day.

The kind of remark that he has made about Republic Day is condemnable. He has insulted it by calling it just a day of procession of floats. He must apologise to the nation, said Javadekar.

Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has also attacked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for taking the "agitation route" and said he should maintain the dignity of the office he holds by adopting constitutional means to resolve his stand-off with the Centre.

In a tweet last night, Digvijay said that when ex-CM Sheila Dikshit used to say that Delhi Police wasn't under her control, AAP used to make fun of her.

"AAP should take a delegation to the Prime Minister and speak to him, should try and pass a bill in Parliament," the Congress leader tweeted. Also, it should be noted that whenever on duty, Kejriwal has never followed the rules and regulations and has always broken the law (and protocol), he said.

"Be it today or be it his tenure in the Income Tax Department," Digvijay added. Yesterday too, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister had said that it was the Delhi Police's duty to maintain law and order in the national capital.

"Will the police garland him if the honourable chief minister of Delhi wants to sit on a dharna without permission, which can disrupt peace?" he asked.

Both Kejriwal and the AAP should not interfere in the working of the Delhi Police which should be allowed to do its duty, Singh, whose party is extending outside support to the 25-day-old Government formed by the fledgling outfit in Delhi, had said.

Unlike Monday, hundreds of AAP supporters thronged the venue of the dharna outside Rail Bhavan in the high security area close to the venue of Republic Day preparations.

The chief minister along with his six cabinet colleagues and scores of supporters spent the night outside the Rail Bhavan, the venue of their protest, braving the cold winter.

Kejriwal slept on the road under the open sky while some of his supporters spent the night singing and raising slogans around a bonfire.

A number of cabinet ministers also slept on the road. Kejriwal threatened that "If the demands are not met then lakhs of our supporters will come to Rajpath. They (the Centre) must listen to the people."  Attacking the home minister, he said he will not shift to Jantar Mantar as requested by the police and the Centre will have to accept his demand for action against the policemen who had refused to act against the alleged drug and prostitution racket.

"Have the people of Delhi given them the right to make decisions for them? No. They have given me the right. How can Shinde ask me where to sit? I will tell him where to sit," he said.

The chief minister also accused the police of harassing his supporters at the protest venue and said the area has been turned into a jail.

 They have turned this small area into a jail. There are not toilets here. I was using a toilet at Rail Bhavan here yesterday (Monday). Today they have even closed that. We had arranged a public toilet somehow yesterday which they did not allow to bring here. They are even not allowing food to be brought here.

"I had to go to the barricade myself to bring the tea inside. The people protesting here are not Pakistanis or Americans. They are our own people. Where will the women go for using a toilet? Has Shinde announced a war against the people?," he said.

Criticising Shinde, Kejriwal said the home minister had "suspended" a number of policemen after some people barged into his residence few months back but no action is taken if women are harassed.

"He (Shinde) is saying that we will celebrate Republic Day but for whom? The VIPS will watch the parades. That is not Republic Day celebration.

"Someone was telling me that a window was broken by protestors at Shinde's residence few months ago. 12 policemen were suspended. When a woman is raped, he says we will get an inquiry done but won't suspend the police," he charged.

"A woman was burnt but police is not arresting anyone as they will first get an inquiry done. RK Singh was right in saying that it is money which reaches the top," he said.

Asking Shinde to support the common man's cause, the chief minister claimed that there will be "rebellion" in Delhi Police as lower level police officials were with AAP.

"A man resigned and came to join us. He had tears in his eyes. Another man who was shouting slogans in our favour was suspended. There will be a rebellion in Delhi Police too," he said.

Coming down hard on the home minister, Kejriwal also accused him of trying to "run" Delhi and justified his protest, saying political discourse in the country has undergone a change.

"We were elected by the people. They approach us. We asked Shinde in a meeting if people approach him when women are raped or burnt. He said 'no'. But people come to us and ask what are you doing. Who is Shinde to run Delhi? He is beginning to think he is the chief minister of Delhi," he alleged.

"Politics will now be run by these unconventional methods. The political discourse of India has changed forever now. This is democracy," he said.

Kejriwal blamed Shinde for the inconvenience caused to people due to closing down of a number of Metro stations around Central Delhi.

"Shinde has closed the metro stations. I had told Metro officials to run the Metro. They said they cannot do it as Delhi Police has closed them. Shinde is causing inconvenience not only to us but also to the general public. He has closed the Metro stations," he said.

Kejriwal, his six ministers and about 200 workers of his Aam Aadmi Party spent the night at the venue of their indefinite protest that they began shortly before noon on Monday.

The AAP protest is turning out to be a security nightmare for the Delhi Police, which has been tasked with securing the area ahead of this year's Republic Day parade.

Kejriwal, who spent the night at the demonstration site, urged the public to join him in demanding police reforms, starting with the removal of three police officers who had refused to carry out a series of arrests on the orders of Delhi law minister, Somnath Bharti.

Home minister Shinde has said there is no question of any action being taken against the police personnel till a judicial enquiry is completed. Kejriwal has said  this is unacceptable.

Earlier on Monday, Kejriwal declared himself an “anarchist” and called for a 10-day protest, creating traffic chaos and a standoff with hundreds of Delhi Police officers.

He took to the streets near the site of the annual Republic Day military parade to press his demands for reforms of the police in the capital.

The unprecedented government-led protests in the country's most sensitive security areas, minutes away from Parliament and the Prime Minister's Office, also saw pre-emptive closure of four metro stations.

Early on Monday, baton-wielding police prevented Kejriwal and AAP leaders from taking their stir against alleged police inaction to the doorstep of the Union home ministry, which controls Delhi Police.

"We have come here for auto drivers, the hawkers and everyone who have to pay bribes to the Delhi police," he said after battling blockades to reach a spot near the presidency building.

After his address, he sat on a makeshift podium surrounded by several hundred AAP supporters as more than 1,000 police and several anti-riot vehicles stood by.

“Some people say that I'm an anarchist creating disorder. Yes I'm an anarchist. I agree to that!" Kejriwal shouted. “But today every home has this anarchy, it's so expensive that people can't make ends meet. Women are unsafe.

By evening the situation turned more chaotic after AAP leaders and supporters jostled with the police, accusing them of having assaulted a party MLA. The police denied the charge.

Traffic snarls intensified in several parts of an already gridlocked Capital as the stand-off continued.

The chief minister wants the Delhi Police force to come under the control of the state government instead of the central government, which runs it via the home ministry.

Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti had last week set out to “uncover a sex and drug racket” at a building in south Delhi’s Khirki Extension, having earlier sent a decoy customer. But when Bharti, a lawyer, asked the policemen accompanying him to raid the building, they refused in the absence of a search warrant or proper police back-up. “The ‘raid’ would have been illegal,” said a senior officer.

Rakhi Birla, the women and child development minister, had her own run-in with the police in Sagarpur when they allegedly refused to apprehend the in-laws of a woman who has been hospitalised with 45% burns.