Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has challenged his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal to show “a single corruption case” against him after the latter named him among the people who allegedly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on the back of graft charges.
Speaking in the Delhi Assembly Wednesday, Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Kejriwal said the raids by agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had brought all the corrupt people in “one political party”, alluding to the BJP.
He added that when the BJP’s central rule comes to an end, the country will become corruption-free.
In his response Friday, Sarma called Kejriwal “a coward hiding behind the veil of immunity in Delhi Assembly, and uttering white lies”, adding that one shouldn’t speak against another person in their absence.
“I wanted to file a defamation case, but Arvind Kejriwal, like a coward, had spoken inside the assembly. Let him come to Assam on 2 April, and say there’s a case against Himanta Biswa Sarma. I will sue him right away as I did for his colleague, Manish Sisodia,” Sarma said.
Article 194 of the Constitution of India provides immunity to members of the state legislatures for anything spoken there.
Mr Arvind Kejriwal is a coward who's hiding behind the veil of immunity in Delhi Assembly and uttering white lies.
Let him say there's a corruption case pending against me outside the Assembly premise and I will sue him in the same manner I did with his colleague Manish Sisodia. pic.twitter.com/nXLBPrxBUW
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) March 31, 2023
Sarma was referring to the criminal defamation case he filed against Sisodia, a jailed AAP leader, for the latter’s allegation that he had awarded a contract for COVID-19 personal protective equipment kits to a company linked to his wife.
Kejriwal is scheduled to visit Guwahati Sunday along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in a bid to strengthen the party in Assam.
Meanwhile, Sarma’s statements evoked an angry response from Rajesh Sharma, the AAP leader in charge of the northeastern states. Sharma said in his tweet: “The entire country knows who is involved in buying and selling MLAs for BJP? The country has recognised the anti-democratic leaders engaged in horse trading when Maharashtra legislators were brought to Guwahati”.
सारे देश को पता है की भाजपा के लिए एमएलए ख़रीदने बेचने की दलाली कौन करता है ? गुवाहाटी में महाराष्ट्र के MLAs को लाकर हॉर्स ट्रेडिंग करने वाले लोकतंत्र विरोधी लोगो को देश पहचान चुका है । https://t.co/PLUPEdT7DS
— Rajesh Sharma ।ৰাজেশ শৰ্মা ।રાજેશ શર્મા 🇮🇳 (@beingAAPian) March 31, 2023
Also Read: Sisodia created ‘Feedback Unit’ to check corruption, used it to snoop instead, says CBI FIR
‘No case against me’
Speaking on a confidence motion tabled by him in the Delhi Assembly Wednesday, Kejriwal alleged that “officers of central [investigating] agencies go around threatening leaders of the Opposition to either join the BJP or go to jail on false charges”.
He also named Sarma among other leaders, saying “since they were involved in corruption, they joined the BJP.”
“Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain were also held at gunpoint but they preferred to go to jail,” Kejriwal added.
He also claimed that the same option was given to leaders such as “Himanta Biswa Sarma, Suvendu Adhikari, Mukul Roy, (and) Narayan Rane, but they all decided to join the BJP as they were guilty of corruption charges”.
In his response, Sarma said: “There is no case against me anywhere in India except some filed by Congress workers at various courts”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: ‘Raise your hands or wave white flag to avoid encounter’: Assam CM Himanta’s advice to criminals