New Delhi: Questioning Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the alleged assault on Swati Maliwal, Goa Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Sawant alleged Wednesday that Kejriwal was “anti-women” and “trying to fix the case” to protect his personal assistant Bibhav Kumar.
“For Kejriwal, money is his first priority, self-interest is second and state or country is third. A chief minister who can’t protect his own Member of Parliament, how can he protect the people of Delhi?” Sawant asked in an interview with ThePrint.
Maliwal, an AAP Rajya Sabha MP, had called up the Delhi Police control room on 13 May alleging that she had been assaulted at party convenor Kejriwal’s official residence in Civil Lines by Kumar, who was the CM’s personal assistant till April. Kumar is now in police custody, having been arrested on 18 May after an FIR was lodged in the case.
Sawant, who was campaigning in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls, alleged: “Swati Maliwal is herself saying that AAP leaders are calling her to make a compromise in the case, threatening that they would otherwise leak personal photos and other material. They are pressuring Maliwal.”
“This incident happened in the CM’s house. How come a chief minister who is living in a shishmahal (glass house) of Rs 150 crore can’t protect his own MP? What about women empowerment? He has shown that he can’t protect the women of Delhi,” he added.
Kejriwal Wednesday broke his silence on the alleged assault, saying he wanted justice to be served in the matter after a fair investigation. To this, Maliwal had responded by saying that she had no faith in his words as she had been at the receiving end of attacks by AAP leaders and volunteers who had declared her a “BJP agent”.
AAP leader Atishi alleged Saturday that Maliwal was facing charges in an illegal recruitment case and was “blackmailed” by the BJP to become part of the “conspiracy” against the CM.
When asked about the allegation that the Maliwal assault case was a “BJP conspiracy against Kejriwal”, Sawant said that “it’s not the BJP which is after him, it’s the court and investigating agency (Enforcement Directorate) that are nailing Kejriwal and his corruption”.
“In this election, the BJP will win all seven (Delhi Lok Sabha) seats and in the assembly elections, the BJP’s double engine government will come to Delhi; there is no doubt about that,” he said.
Kejriwal, along with other AAP leaders, is being investigated by the ED in the Delhi liquor policy case and is out on bail after being arrested in March on corruption charges.
‘Modi govt is people’s desire’
When it was pointed out that the BJP had first cornered Kejriwal on the issue of corruption and had now added the matter of women’s safety, Sawant reiterated that “it’s the court which has taken cognisance of his corruption cases and not the BJP” and expressed confidence that the “people of Delhi are now with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not Kejriwal”.
“First, Kejriwal was involved in corruption and now he is protecting those who attacked women. The people of Delhi know his attitude towards women,” he said.
“Several times, he (Kejriwal) was given notice but he did not turn up for investigation. If you look at court remarks in (AAP leader) Manish Sisodia’s bail application case, it clearly says money laundering happened in the liquor case. In Goa, too, the investigation has been completed and it is the court’s guarantee that Kejriwal will go to jail on 2 June (after his interim bail ends). This is not our guarantee,” he added.
When asked about Kejriwal’s claim that Modi was seeking votes to make senior BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah the PM, Sawant said: “Kejriwal is not required to think about the BJP. Party president J.P. Nadda has already clarified that Modi ji is the prime minister today and will remain the prime minister tomorrow too, and there is no confusion about that. The BJP has already won 320 seats in five phases of elections (so far).”
Speaking about the number of seats the BJP is expecting to win this Lok Sabha election, the Goa CM told ThePrint that “the BJP campaign was abki baar, 400 paar, but now it’s the people’s campaign”.
“People are leading the campaign to give 400 seats to the BJP. Now there is only one guarantee in country, that is Modi’s guarantee. He delivers what he promises. People have trust in Modi and people know that if the country needs development, Modi is the only one to lead. This is not the BJP’s statement but the people’s desire,” he asserted.
‘UCC in practice in Goa, no complaints’
When Sawant was asked about Modi’s assertion earlier this month that a uniform civil code (UCC) was in force in in Goa and no communities faced any discrimination, the CM said that “PM Modi ji rightly articulated that the UCC is in practice in Goa since the very early days and the state’s UCC model is one to be implemented in the country”.
“In Goa, there are minority Catholics and tribals, and Hindus, but the minority communities have never faced any discrimination due to the UCC. They follow their own religious practices and the UCC rules don’t interfere in that. Even the Catholic community is following UCC rules from the very early days but has never complained,” he said.
On the charge that the BJP is reverting to “Hindu-Muslim” rhetoric across the country, Sawant defended the party by saying that “it’s not the BJP but the Congress that is dividing people by minority appeasement”.
“The BJP has never discriminated against the minorities. The prime minister always says that ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ (inclusion of all and development for all) is the mantra of his government. In Goa, there are three minority ministers and 11 MLAs are from the minority community. We are getting votes from the minorities in south Goa and across the state,” the CM said.
He alleged that “the BJP always talks of viksit bharat (developed India) but a few people, particularly the Congress and INDIA alliance, talk about division and they want to divide people because they don’t have anything to show (in the way of work)”.
Sawant was asked how he saw the governments of the two IITians – his predecessor, the late BJP leader Manohar Parrikar in Goa, and Kejriwal’s in Delhi.
“Parrikar developed the state and made his mark in politics. Kejriwal, too, claims that he studied at an IIT, but he has become a symbol of corruption. For us, the nation is first, the party is next and the self is last, but for Kejriwal, paisa (money) is first, the self is second and country and state the last. That is the difference,” he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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