Kejriwal Uses NYT Article to Obfuscate CBI Raids on Sisodia’s Home
While the NYT article looks like an advertorial (advertisement or paid article), I sent an email to NYT to issue a clarification.
By Rakesh Raman
Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal is quoting an unrelated school education article of The New York Times (NYT) to create a confusion around the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids on his junior CM Manish Sisodia’s residence.
CBI has filed an FIR (first information report) and it is investigating allegations of corruption in the new Delhi excise policy introduced by the Delhi Government in November last year. In this case, CBI raided Sisodia’s residence and other locations today (August 19) as part of the probe.
However, as usual, Kejriwal and other members of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are trying to give it a political colour by indicating that it is a politically motivated case. In his tweet in Hindi, Kejriwal mentioned about the NYT article that has written about the education standards in Delhi schools which are controlled by Sisodia.
While the NYT article looks like an advertorial (advertisement or paid article), I sent an email today (August 19) to NYT to issue a clarification that the article was driven by the public relations (PR) team of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which is spending huge public money on advertisements to falsely project the performance of AAP government. NYT has not yet responded.
The Right to Information (RTI) replies by the Directorate of Information and Publicity reveal that the Delhi Government’s spending on advertisements increased by a whopping 4,273% over 10 financial years ending with 2021-2022, particularly under Kejriwal’s government.
In July 2022, the Lt. Governor (LG) of Delhi Vinai Saxena had asked CBI to probe Sisodia’s surreptitious links with the liquor mafia that led to massive corruption in the sale of liquor shop licences in the city. LG Saxena had recommended an investigation by CBI into the Delhi Government’s new excise policy.
Citing a report by the Delhi Chief Secretary, Saxena said that Sisodia, who is also the in-charge of the Excise Department, was allegedly involved in corruption and worked to benefit members of liquor mafia causing huge loss to the exchequer.
The way corruption in the Kejriwal government is getting exposed, it appears that all the politicians in his AAP are corrupt. Satyendar Jain, a minister in the Kejriwal government, is already in jail for committing serious financial crimes.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the Delhi High Court seeks to declare Satyendar Jain a “person with unsound mind” so that he could be removed from his position in the government.
In June, LG Saxena had given his approval to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) to probe allegations of irregularities by the Kejriwal government in the construction of temporary hospitals during the fight against Covid-19.
In a video interaction on June 21, Sisodia confirmed this fact and asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is filing false complaints against AAP. However, Sisodia could not elaborate how it is a false complaint.
While there are multiple complaints of corruption and misappropriation of public funds by Kejriwal and his AAP colleagues, strangely Sisodia claimed that AAP is an honest party.
In fact, Sisodia is also under ACB investigation related to a huge scam of Rs. 2,000 crore for the construction of classrooms in Delhi. According to an India Today report of June 2, the complaint sent to the ACB of Delhi Government has revealed the details of corruption by Sisodia and others.
In the new case, a BJP leader Manoj Tiwari alleges that the Kejriwal government is involved in the corruption case of Rs. 1,256 crore for the construction of temporary hospitals in the national capital.
Tiwari added on June 21 that the court has ordered an investigation into this corruption case while the Kejriwal government is showing the expenditure in 2021 on hospitals which were already built in 2020.
Sisodia said this is an old complaint and former LG Anil Baijal had dismissed it. But he did not give any proof of the case dismissal by Baijal. Sisodia urged LG Saxena not to take action based on the BJP’s complaints but instead asked him to invite complaints of corruption from the general public.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.
