In a bold move, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) National Convenor and Delhi CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal along with all the big AAP leaders reached the BJP headquarter at 12 noon on Sunday to get arrested as per his challenge to the powers that be to arrest its leaders en masse instead of sending them behind bars by framing them one by one.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemingly accepted defeat and backed off. The AAP supremo and his colleagues were marching on foot from the AAP headquarters to the BJP office when police blocked their path. Undeterred, Shri Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP leaders, sat on a ‘dharna’ in the scorching sun, waiting for half an hour. Despite their protest, PM Modi did not send his police to arrest them.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal was accompanies by AAP National General Secretary (Organisation) Dr Sandeep Pathak, MPs Shri Sanjay Singh and Shri Raghav Chadha; ministers Shri Gopal Rai, Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj, Ms. Atishi, Shri Kailash Gahlot and Shri Imran Hussain, and AAP National Secretary Pankaj Gupta and all MLAs and Councillors of the party while marching on foot towards the BJP headquarters.
Addressing media persons before marching towards the BJP headquarters on Sunday, AAP National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal said today, the top leaders of our party, all the ministers, MLAs, MPs, Councillors, office bearers are present here. Why did we have to gather here today? Because the Prime Minister has made up his mind to completely destroy and crush the Aam Aadmi Party, for which he has started an operation called, “Operation Jhadu (broom)”.
The chief minister said, “How did I come to know about this? There are many people who go to meet the Prime Minister, many of them know us too. So, after meeting him (PM), they tell us, and almost everyone had the same version, that the first thing the Prime Minister talks about is that these Aam Aadmi Party people are growing very fast. These are the words of the Prime Minister, which were told to me by many people who meet him that Modi ji says that the Aam Aadmi Party is growing very fast, its work is being discussed all over the country and in the near future, the Aam Aadmi Party can be a tough challenge for the BJP at the national level and in many states,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said therefore, the Prime Minister believes and says that it is necessary to end the AAP immediately. “Before this party (AAP) grows too big and becomes a challenge for the BJP in the future, Aam Aadmi Party should be crushed here itself. For this, they have started ‘Operation Jhadu’. Under this operation, big leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party will be arrested, they are being arrested. In the coming days, the Aam Aadmi Party’s bank accounts will be frozen. ED’s lawyer has already given a statement in the court that the Aam Aadmi Party’s bank accounts will be frozen immediately after the elections. I am not saying this on my own, he (ED’s lawyer) said that they were to be frozen now but if we freeze them now, they will get sympathy. So, after the elections, they will freeze the Aam Aadmi Party’s bank accounts and the Aam Aadmi Party will be brought on the road by getting its office vacated,” said the AAP chief.
The AAP National Convenor said they (BJP) have made these three plans to arrest our leaders, freeze our bank accounts, and evict us from our office (premises). They think that in this way they will finish the Aam Aadmi Party, destroy the Aam Aadmi Party, he added.
The AAP chief said I want to tell them that the Aam Aadmi Party is not a party of a few people, the Aam Aadmi Party is the party of the dreams of 140-crore people. “The kind of work we have done in Delhi and Punjab; the people of this country have never seen such work in 75 years. This ideology, a government of this kind that works, can also run with such honesty. This ideology is spreading very fast in the country. And the dreams that the common man used to see about the government in this country, those dreams are now being seen coming true by the people, that this can happen,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said in Delhi and Punjab, we have started improving the government schools. In Delhi, we have made the government schools excellent, poor children have started getting good education. Modi Ji is not able to do this, so he decided to stop them _ arrest Manish Sisodia, arrest Kejriwal, close their schools. We opened many mohalla clinics in Delhi and Punjab, fixed government hospitals, arranged for free treatment for people. Modi Ji is not able to do it, he said arrest Kejriwal, close his hospitals, close his mohalla clinics. We made electricity free in Delhi and Punjab, but he is not able to do it. “Wherever their (BJP) government is, it is running in losses, they don’t have money. We saved money honestly and made electricity free. Now we are going to give Rs 1000 to women, every month Rs 1000 will be deposited in their accounts. This news is spreading rapidly in the whole country, I am traveling all over the country, wherever I go these days, people say Kejriwal Ji you have made schools in Delhi and Punjab very good; fixed power cut issue, made electricity free. The success of the Aam Aadmi Party is spreading all around on its own,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party is now an idea. You can arrest its leaders, but how will you arrest this idea? “An idea cannot be arrested. It is written in the Bhagavad Gita also that it (an idea) cannot be imprisoned, it cannot be burnt, it cannot be cut. This is an idea, it cannot be imprisoned, it is spreading all around in the whole country. This is such an idea which cannot be destroyed, this idea is spreading on its own,” he said.
The AAP supremo said I want to say this to the Prime Minister that you will arrest one leader but my Mother India is so fertile that it will give birth to 100 more leaders; you will arrest one Kejriwal, she will give birth to hundreds and thousands of Kejriwal. You can try your luck.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said in the last few years, since we came into power in 2015, they have made numerous allegations on us. They said ‘Kejriwal is corrupt, he committed scams in buses, water and electricity’. I don’t know how many charges have been implicated on us in the last few years by the BJP. None of these allegations have proven to be true. People are not stupid. Now they are saying that we have done a liquor scam. The public is asking them that if a liquor scam has been committed, where is the money, where has it gone? They are themselves saying in the Supreme Court that they have not been able to even a single penny. They have committed hundreds of raids, let alone jewellery or bundles of cash, they have not even recovered even a single penny. They are saying that the liquor scam is worth Rs 100 crore, then why haven’t they found even Rs. 100 in the raids? Where did all the money go? They have arrested our leaders under fabricated cases, he added.
The AAP National Convenor said remember what happened in the last Punjab elections in 2022, in a rally in Abohar? Just 3 days before the elections, the Prime Minister said that ‘Kejriwal is a Khalistani terrorist. Kejriwal wants to make Khalistan and become the Prime Minister of that country’. When the Prime Minister speaks with such absurdity and foolishness, we feel pity for the country that he is our Prime Minister. Doing such absurd talk does not suit a Prime Minister.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said now let’s see, Delhi elections are on 25th May, Punjab elections are on 1st June, what kind of absurd things they are going to say in the next 10-15 days. They will keep talking like this, these people can stoop down to any level and say anything. The public needs to be careful, he added.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said the AAP and every leader of the AAP has gone through hell and has given ‘Agni Pariksha’ at every stage. We are such people that even if we find out that any of our leaders is involved in corruption, we expel such people ourselves. There are many instances, including the one where a minister from Delhi was expelled, a minister from Punjab was sent to jail. Now since last two years, the BJP people have started arresting our leaders. They arrested me, Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendar Jain. Yesterday, they even arrested my PA. Raghav Chadha has just come back, now they are saying that he will also be arrested. They are saying that Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Kailash Gahlot will also be arrested soon.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said, “Today we all have gathered. I want to tell the Prime Minister that you must be having trouble in arresting the leaders one by one. Let us all come to you, and you can arrest all of us together. We are still not going to be cowed down. Let us see if the AAP gets destroyed or thrives and becomes even bigger. You can try it once.”
He said I was in jail for 50 days and I have optimised that time pretty well. “I have read Bhagavad Gita twice. I have not just read the translation but the entire verses along with the detailed explanation. I also read the Ramayana.”
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said now we will quietly proceed towards the BJP headquarters. I will lead the demonstration and all of you will follow me. If they let us go to the BJP headquarters, we will go there. If not, we will sit at the point where they stop us. We will sit on the road there. We will sit there for an hour and wait for them to arrest us. If they do not come and arrest us, it will be their defeat. We will come back after waiting for half an hour.
The AAP National Convenor said I want to say this to all of you that we are going to face massive challenges in the coming days and all of you should be prepared to face those. The challenges we have faced so far in the past, the kind of obstacles we faced, and the way we came out of all those hurdles, it is nothing short of a miracle. “We have the blessings of God, of Shri Bajrang Bali, with us. We would have been finished by now if he was not with us in the last 10 years. God is with us, always walk on the path of truth, don’t give up. We will come out of all the challenges because our intention in clear that we want to serve the country,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said today, Sardar Bhagwant Mann (Punjab Chief Minister) was also going to come. “I got a call from him and many other MLAs of Punjab that they want to come. But I asked them to stay and told them that if they arrest us today, all of you come here and get arrested tomorrow,” he concluded.
Arvind Kejriwal marches towards BJP headquarters to surrender, sits on the road when police stopped him
After addressing the workers at the AAP headquarters, Shri Arvind Kejriwal marched towards the BJP headquarters to surrender. During this, MP Shri Sanjay Singh, AAP National General Secretary (Organization) Dr. Sandeep Pathak, Delhi State Convenor and Cabinet Minister Shri Gopal Rai, Shri Kailash Gahlot, Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj, MP Shri Raghav Chadha, Cabinet Ministers Ms. Atishi and Shri Imran Hussain, National Secretary Pankaj Gupta, MLAs, councillors and senior leaders were present.
CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal walked ahead and led the march from the AAP headquarters. Senior party leaders and a large number of party workers and supporters were lined up behind him. They had posters, banners and placards with slogans in their hands and moved towards the BJP headquarters while raising slogans, but Delhi Police had barricaded them at some distance. When the entire crowd reached there with the CM, the police stopped them and did not let them move forward. After this, Shri Arvind Kejriwal sat on the road and waited for his arrest for half an hour. When PM Modi’s police did not arrest him, all the leaders including the CM returned.
As per the promise, Arvind Kejriwal had come to surrender, but PM Modi left the ground and ran away: Sanjay Singh
During this, Senior AAP Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Sanjay Singh said that now it is known that PM Modi cannot arrest Arvind Kejriwal. He cannot arrest our leaders, MLAs, councilors and workers, but PM Narendra Modi got scared. As per the promise, Shri Arvind Kejriwal himself came to the ground with the big leaders of the party to say, ‘Modi Ji arrest everyone’, but PM Modi left the ground and ran away. As per the promise of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, we stood here for half an hour. We fulfilled our promise and now we are going back. PM Modi ran away after losing.
Delhi Police was ready to stop Arvind Kejriwal
To stop Shri Arvind Kejriwal from going to the BJP office with all the party leaders, Delhi Police had turned the entire area into a cantonment. Since the morning, Section 144 was imposed on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and many levels of barricading were put up. Police had put up high barricades outside the Aam Aadmi Party office. High level security forces were also deployed outside the BJP office. Women police force along with paramilitary forces were also deployed to stop the Aam Aadmi Party leaders. Along with this, tankers and water cannons were also put in place to release tear gas shells.
Arvind Kejriwal’s supporters raise slogans fiercely
On the call of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, a large number of workers marched towards the BJP headquarters. One by one, the workers, angry with the arrest of party leaders, carried posters and banners of ‘Jail ka Jawaab Vote Se’. A supporter came to express his protest with a chain around his neck. The police stopped everyone on the way and did not let them proceed further.
After this, MP Shri Sanjay Singh, along with all the supporters, raised slogans like, ‘Aapka beta, aapka laal, Kejriwal’, (your son, your son Kejriwal), down with Hitlershahi, down with Modishahi, and ‘Jab jab tanashah darta hai, Police ko aage karta hai’ (whenever Modi gets scared, he sends the police forward), ‘Aawaaz do, hum ek hain’ (raise your voice, we are one), how much space do you have in your jail, ‘hum ladenge, jeetenge’ (we will fight and win), ‘Aam Aadmi Party Zindabad’, ‘Zor zurm ke takkar mein’ (in the face of the force and crime..), Hitlershahi will not work in democracy, ‘Jail ka Jawab Vote se denge..’ (we will answer to jail, with vote), ‘Gundagardi ka jawab Vote se denge’ (we will answer highnadedness, with vote).
