Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at the BJP for attempting to carry out Operation Lotus in Delhi. He accused the BJP of gathering all the corrupt people of the country in one party using the ED-CBI. The CM also noted how despite their muscle power, & despite having the ED-CBI, BJP couldn’t gather 14 supporters for the No Confidence Motion. He also pointed out that prominent leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma, Narayan Rane, Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy joined BJP after ED-CBI raids, while Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain were held at gunpoint, but they preferred to go to jail instead of joining BJP.
Notably, Operation Lotus failed in Delhi once again on Wednesday, as the Delhi Assembly passed CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal’s Motion of Confidence with a landslide majority. The Motion of Confidence was moved by CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal to give the opposition a chance to speak and address their concerns after BJP failed to even table its Motion of No-Confidence. Despite having only eight MLAs, the BJP was given 35 minutes to speak during the 65-minute discussion on the motion of confidence in the house. The Chief Minister also expressed his gratitude towards the people of Delhi for having faith in their elected government, despite the conspiracies of the opposition.
Speaking on the matter before the voting process began, Shri Arvind Kejriwal highlighted how at a time when the BJP-led Central Government was doing everything in its control to work against the Constitution of India, what has happened in the Vidhan Sabha today is a great example highlighting the upholding of constitutional norms.
He added that when the Budget session of the Vidhan Sabha convened last week, the BJP claimed that it would bring forward a No-Confidence Motion. When reminded by the media that they needed a minimum of 14 MLAs for the purpose, the BJP MLAs informed the media that they had spoken to other MLAs and were confident about getting the numbers.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that he individually spoke to each MLA of AAP and most of them informed him that they had received threatening calls from BJP leaders saying that they would be put in jail like Shri Manish Sisodia and Shri Satyendar Jain, if they did not support the BJP. Some of them were also told that ED and CBI would file false cases against them as well.
But the Delhi CM very proudly went on to say that despite the threats not a single AAP MLA decided to break away from the party. He informed the House that AAP has 62 MLAs, two of whom – Shri Manish Sisodia and Shri Satyendar Jain – were lodged in jail, there were three others – Prakash Jarwal, Rohit Mehraulia and Rajesh Gupta – who were out of Delhi for some personal work, but remaining 67 were present in the House at the moment.
He said that despite the Central Government misusing its agencies to threaten the AAP MLAs, not a single person has decided to betray the party. He further said that when he was informed that the BJP MLAs in the House wanted to raise a No-Confidence Motion without the adequate numbers for the provision, he did not mind it as it meant that they were unhappy about some issue and wanted to raise a point.
He, however, said that if the roles of the two parties were to be reversed, then the BJP would have been going around screaming that they have defeated the AAP, but he said that his party does not believe in such politics.
Proposing a Confidence Motion, the CM said that this must be the first time ever that the Opposition was unable to introduce a No-Confidence Motion due to lack of adequate numbers, and yet the ruling party was bringing forward a Confidence Motion to allow the opposing party to raise its voice. He further added that the AAP-led Government is not afraid of criticism and welcomes it as it will enable the state government to work better.
The CM also applauded the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha Shri Ram Niwas Goel for giving the BJP MLAs more than adequate time to speak in the House to raise their issues. Mentioning that the Rules of Business of the House explain that political parties in the House are given time in proportion of the seats that they have, the CM said that the BJP has been given plenty of time to raise their issues and therefore should not complaint about their voice being muzzled by the House. “Despite having only 8 MLAs in a House of 70 members, the BJP has been given 35 minutes to speak in the last one hour. Since they have only 11 percent of the seat, they should have been given 7 minutes as per the Rules of Business, but they have been given 35 minutes, which is five times more,” he said.
The CM hit out at the BJP for criticising the ruling party just for the sake of it, and said that criticism without basis does not serve anyone any good. He urged the BJP MLAs to raise the issues of the residents of their constituency and said that the way they are functioning right now, they will not come to power in Delhi even in 2050.
He pointed out that even in 2017, the BJP had tried to break the AAP MLAs and form a government through the backdoor. “AAP had 67 MLAs in a House of 70 members at the time, and even then the BJP was saying that it will form the government in Delhi. They said that 21 MLAs would be disqualified and the rest would break away and so on, but I never understood how they could even think of getting a majority in Delhi. Even with 4 MLAs, AAP would have a majority as the BJP only had 3 members,” he said.
The CM further told the BJP Leader of Opposition Shri Ramvir Singh Bidhuri that if his party has any self-respect then they should stop trying to bring in a No-Confidence Motion.
Highlighting an incident from November last year in Telangana, the CM said that a sting operation at the time revealed that 3 BJP leaders from the state met 4 BRS MLAs in a closed door meeting and tried to bribe them by paying Rs 50 crore each to vote against the party. They were also told that senior BJP leaders such as BL Santhosh and Amit Shah would eventually meet them. “All of this was caught in a sting operation and later that evening I received a call from Telangana CM Shri K Chandrasekhar Rao who informed me that BJP leaders were claiming that they have brought several AAP MLAs in Delhi by paying Rs 25 crore and the government here would fall. I asked him to not worry about such accusations and told him that the BJP leaders had been going around the country lying about such things,” he said.
The CM informed Shri Ramvir Singh Bidhuri that his party is the Aam Aadmi Party and the leaders of this party are followers of Bhagat Singh and they can die for the nation but will not betray it bu joining the BJP. “Each of the AAP MLA that you see in this Vidhan Sabha is a gem. No force in the world can break the spirit of these MLAs. The BJP tried to bribe the MLAs but it did not work. Each AAP MLA is ready to go to the jail if needed for the country,” he said.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for recently saying that due to the fear of ED and CBI, all the corrupt leaders have now joined together on one stage, the CM said, “The statement is just slightly incorrect. Instead of a stage, he should have said that all the corrupt leaders have joined one political party – the BJP. The officers of central agencies go around threatening leaders of the opposition to either join the BJP or to to jail for false charges,” he said.
He added that the same tactic was used against Shri Manish Sisodia and Shri Satyendar Jain, but they both said that they prefer going to jail rather than joining the BJP. He further said that this same option was given to corrupt leaders such as Himanta Biswa Sarma, Suvendu Adhikari, Mukul Roy, Narayan Rane, but they all decided to join the BJP as they were guilty of corruption charges.
Stressing that PM Narendra Modi will not be the Prime Minister forever, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that India will become free of corrupt leaders, the day the BJP is ousted out of power. He said that the Central Government has over the years brought all the corrupt leaders with serious charges into its own party using central agencies such as the ED and CBI. He said that since all the corrupt leaders are within one party, it will be easy to arrest them the day BJP is voted out of power.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that PM Narendra Modi had a great opportunity to change the face of India as he was voted to power by such a huge majority. But he went on to waste this chance and has caused India to be more divided than it has ever been before. He also said that everyone is living in fear in the country at the moment as the BJP has misused central agencies to trouble anyone who does not support their ideology.
Highlighting that he recently met a businessman in Delhi, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that the person pointed out that most businesses are now exiting the country and this was only because the BJP was threatening them using the CBI and the ED.
The CM said that the people of the country are aware that the media is being controlled by the BJP, but said that this is happening only because the BJP has falsely filed 3-4 ED cases against most owners of media companies. He said that the day these owners do not show what the BJP wants them to show, they will be out behind bars. He further said that the day these people know that the BJP is going out of power, these media institutions will gobble the BJP up.
Highlighting that the BJP-led Central Government is not allowing any Opposition-ruled state to work, Shri Arvind Kejriwal gave the example of Punjab to say that the Governor was not allowing the Budget session of Punjab Assembly. “Punjab CM Sardar Bhagwant Mann had to go to the Supreme Court to ensure that the Budget session of Punjab Assembly takes place. What kind of politics is this? Just because the Governor took offence to some letter that Sardar Bhagwant Mann had written earlier, he decided to withhold the Budget session from taking place. Recently the Telangana Government also had to approach the Supreme Court as the Governor has kept 12 bills pending for over 6 months. How can democracy function in such a manner?,” he asked.
The CM concluded by urging the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Shri Ramvir Singh Bidhuri to not indulge in this negative politics of No-Confidence Motion without any basis. “We have 62 MLAs at present and after the Assembly elections in 2025, hopefully this number will only increase. We hope the BJP does not indulge in negative politics,” he said.
