Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Fails to Clear Up Corruption Charges

Corruption is so rampant in almost every street of Delhi that chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi government have failed to check it.

By Rakesh Raman

After a spate of corruption charges against him and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal broke his silence Sunday.

But instead of responding to specific allegations, he once again hoodwinked the people of Delhi and his own party colleagues with a baseless harangue that left people more confused than enthused.

In his speech in Hindi, Kejriwal said that the corruption charges against him is part of the biggest opposition attack on him and AAP because he has been fighting against corruption.

Of late, opposition parties BJP and Congress in Delhi have revealed a number of cases of corruption in which Kejriwal and AAP have been involved.

Corruption Cases

In one of the cases, Kejriwal was seen accepting corruption money worth Rs. 2 crore (20 million), as an ousted minister Kapil Mishra of the Delhi Government has alleged.

Meanwhile, Mishra who is acting like a whistleblower, has further exposed AAP corruption by stating that Kejriwal’s party members, including Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh, have enjoyed Russian junket sponsored by a man who had links with companies which are being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) for a Rs. 400-crore scam.

Similarly, BJP Delhi Pradesh president Manoj Tiwari has revealed that several scams are going on in the Health Department of Delhi Government.

He said that the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government has violated the rules in the appointment of the daughter of Health Minister Satender Jain as a Consultant and appointment of a relative of Kejriwal Dr. Nikunj Aggarwal as OSD.

Plus, Tiwari said there are financial & administrative bungling in setting up of Mohalla Clinics apart from in the appointment of security agencies in the Hospitals of Delhi Government.

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Further elaborating the corruption cases, Tiwari said that when the office of the erstwhile Secretary to CM Rajender Kumar was raided the CM had presented it as a case of personal prejudice.

Tiwari said Kejriwal tried to pressurize the Central Government but after some days it was proved that Rajender Kumar had committed corruption. Thereafter, according to Tiwari, Kejriwal never discussed the topic.

Although Kejriwal won the election with the promise to weed out corruption from Delhi, the truth is that corruption is so rampant in almost every street of Delhi that Kejriwal and Delhi government have failed to check it.

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Worse, Kejriwal’s own government is facing serious corruption charges. Last year, the lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung had set up an expert committee – called the Shunglu Committee – to examine over 400 files for financial and administrative irregularities committed by Kejriwal’s government.

While the Shunglu Committee had submitted its report in November last year, it is stated that the report has found serious cases of fraud, cheating, and misappropriation of funds in Kejriwal’s Delhi government.

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Future of AAP

While Kejriwal tried to save his face with a shallow speech on Sunday, his sacked minister Mishra has other plans. He has given a call to all those who were associated with social activist Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement in 2011 to come together and save AAP from Kejriwal and a few of his accomplices who, according to him, have hijacked the party.

4364 calls on Day 1 by ppl who want to volunteer for भ्रष्टाचार मुक्त दिल्ली, केजरीवाल मुक्त दिल्ली, to join give miss call on 7863037300

— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishraAAP) May 21, 2017

In order to rope in the AAP workers and volunteers, Mishra has also released a phone number 7863037300 on which people can give a missed call in order to join a new movement to see corruption-free Delhi and Kejriwal-free Delhi.

He also has asked AAP rebels – Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav who were thrown out of the party by Kejriwal – to help him dethrone Kejriwal and reclaim AAP.

If Mishra and his friends succeeded in their attempt, you can soon expect to see the political demise of Kejriwal although it will be impossible to weed out corruption from Delhi because corruption is the lifeblood of Indian politicians and bureaucrats.  

By Rakesh Raman, who is a government’s National award-winning journalist and runs free school for deserving children under his NGO – RMN Foundation.