Chandigarh: With Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal now in jail for almost three weeks, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab is using his incarceration to draw political mileage ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Following Kejriwal’s arrest, the party started a campaign, Modi ka sabse bada dar Kejriwal, using Kejriwal’s arrest in the alleged Delhi liquor scam to project itself as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) real challenger.
With the Congress being the AAP’s principal rival in Punjab, the former’s stature as the BJP’s national challenger is a disadvantage in the Lok Sabha elections — a factor that the AAP is seeking to counter by projecting Kejriwal as the BJP’s main challenger.
It’s playing a victim card at the same time, with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann leading a day-long symbolic fast Sunday to “bless Kejriwal”.
Speaking at a public gathering at revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s ancestral village, Khatkar Kalan, Nawanshahr, Mann drew a parallel between Bhagat Singh and Kejriwal. The backdrop of the function was a large picture of Kejriwal behind bars with the signage Kejriwal nu Ashirwad.
Mann compared Kejriwal with Bhagat Singh, saying that the former was a modern-day revolutionary who had brought about a sea change in the politics of India.
“If you notice, after Arvind Kejriwal started giving guarantees in elections, now the BJP, too, has copied this and shifted from manifestos or ghoshna patra to Modi ki Guarantee,” said Mann.
The Punjab chief minister said that the time had come for the followers of Bhagat Singh and the supporters of AAP to come out and show their resentment against the powers that be.
“During the time of Bhagat Singh, they had to stand up against a foreign power, the British rule, and whatever they had to do was a secret, hidden from the public eye so that they would not get arrested. But now, if you have to show resentment, all you have to do is go to the polling booth and cast your vote,” said Mann.
ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਸਾਬ੍ਹ ਆਪਣੀ ਪੜ੍ਹਾਈ ਦੀਆਂ ਡਿਗਰੀਆਂ ਛੱਡੋ ਚਾਹ ਵਾਲੀ ਕੇਤਲੀ ਹੀ ਦਿਖਾ ਦਿਓ… ਜਿਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਚਾਹ ਵੇਚਦੇ ਸੀ… ਹੁਣ ਲੋਕ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ ਜੁਮਲਿਆਂ ਤੇ ਝੂਠ ਦੇ ਜਾਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਨਹੀਂ ਫਸਣ ਵਾਲੇ… pic.twitter.com/HVlP9F3OQ6
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) April 7, 2024
Moreover, he also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, “If Modi cannot show his education degrees, the least he can do is show the kettle in which he made tea as a child and served people.”
Notably, Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal, also issued a statement from the AAP Delhi office last week with a photograph of Kejriwal behind bars hanging on the wall between the pictures of Bhagat Singh and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.
Mann’s remarks Sunday did not go well with the BJP — drawing severe criticism from state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar.
“How can you compare a person who is jailed for corruption, that too in a liquor scam, with the great martyr Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who gave up his life for the freedom struggle of this nation,” said Jakhar, talking to news agency PTI.
He added that the chief minister refuses to learn any lessons from the backlash that his party got last week over the portraits of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar being placed on either side of Kejriwal’s photograph. “Was it not enough criticism that you had received that you had to repeat the same thing again,” remarked Jakhar.
VIDEO | Punjab BJP President Sunil Jakhar reacts to CM Bhagwant Mann observing AAP's 'Upvas Diwas' protest against arrest of Arvind Kejriwal.
(Source: Third Party) pic.twitter.com/yqUKD0zkSo
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 7, 2024
Bhagat Singh’s family had also reacted sharply to Sunita Kejriwal comparing Kejriwal to the freedom fighter. In a statement to news agency ANI, Bhagat Singh’s grandnephew Yadvinder Singh Sandhu had said he felt “awful” at the comparison.
“The kind of politics that parties are indulging in across the country is not the kind of politics that Bhagat Singh did. He never placed the personal above the nation, which is what is happening today,” he told ANI.
On Sunday, Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira also said that “tainted and corrupt leaders involved in hundreds of crores of liquor scandal” being compared with Bhagat Singh was a matter of shame.
“Dear @BhagwantMann, democracy is not in danger, the future of tainted & corrupt @ArvindKejriwal is surely in danger. I’m sure Shaheed Bhagat Singhji’s soul must be crying how today’s fake revolutionaries like @BhagwantMann & @ArvindKejriwal are misusing his name to protect tainted & corrupt leaders involved in hundreds of crores liquor scandal,” posted Khaira on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).
Dear @BhagwantMann democracy is not in danger the future of tainted & corrupt @ArvindKejriwal is surely in danger! I’m sure Shaheed Bhagat Singh ji’s soul must be crying how today’s fake revolutionaries like @BhagwantMann & @ArvindKejriwal are misusing his name to protect tainted… pic.twitter.com/55DkTJGiC2
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) April 8, 2024
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
Also Read: Eyeing national role, why AAP has made Bhagat Singh’s legacy the centerpiece of its politics