Anger, despair — and a will to fight back: The mood at 3 Delhi mohalla clinics over Kejriwal’s arrest

Set up in 2015, the Peeragarhi Relief Camp mohalla clinic in Shakur Basti — the constituency of jailed AAP former minister Satyendar Jain — is the first among a series of such clinics set up by Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government with the promise to provide free treatment to the residents near their home.

The Indian Express visited three Mohalla clinics in the Capital on Friday to get a sense of what people in Delhi had to say about the arrest of the CM.

Peeragarhi

Kuljeet Kaur, a resident of the area, said the clinic has been a boon to the residents. While she is not sure about the circumstances surrounding Kejriwal’s arrest, she seemed resolute in her support. “Delhi me toh ek wo hi hai (He is the only leader we have in Delhi),” she said.

Echoing her sentiments, another resident, Kulbhushan Singh, 45, said, “He gave us roads, electricity and this clinic where the doctors are also very helpful.”

Delhi Mohalla clinic (File Photo)

Singh is referring to the first pucca road the colony, set up in 1987 for migrants from Punjab, got in 2015.

A cab driver, Kulbhushan said the mohalla clinic is the go-to point for him and his wife for any health concern. “We even got vaccinated against Covid here,” he added.

Shakuntala Devi, 75, is all praises for the Mohalla clinic. “We do not have to go anywhere else now,” she said. Expressing shock at Kejriwal’s arrest, she said, “I am ready to support him if needed. Two women from our area have already gone to participate in the protest in support of Kejriwal.”

Romi Bajaj, 36, a differently abled woman, said Mohalla Clinic doctors helped her get all the tests done from home and free-of-cost.

The arrest has made 45-year-old Neelam Gosain disillusioned; she said she is not going to participate in the voting process again. “If Kejriwal is arrested, where will poor people like us go and who will listen to us? We are all ready to sit in protest against his arrest,” she said. On the other hand, Sonu Khatri and Ansh Singh, both 18, said the arrest will motivate the people to vote for the AAP. “We will vote for him,” they said in unison.

Seelampur

Some 20 km away, at the Mohalla clinic in the densely populated Seelampur, patients were seen engaged in a discussion over Kejriwal’s arrest, stating that the 54-year-old leader has become a victim of politics.

Naeed Hassan, a patient waiting for his consultation, said, “It was meant to happen. The Opposition is being crushed before the elections.”

Praising Kejriwal, Taufiq, who runs a welding shop, said, “He has given us these Mohalla Clinics which are a boon for low-income localities.”

Another patient, Md Kausaf, a bag maker, too said, “Kejriwal has done a great job setting up these clinics across Delhi. Private doctors loot people. We always visit this facility as the doctor is good and we don’t get charged for medicines.”

Kailash Nagar

At the Kailash Nagar Mohalla clinic, which operates for a longer duration, from 7 am to 7 pm, unlike other clinics that wind up by 2 pm, the prevailing sentiment was no different.

Santosh, a 65-year-old woman who was visiting the facility to get medication for joint pain and an eye ailment, said, “If not for Kejriwal, we would have been buried under my hefty medical bills.”

Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), she said, “AAP is doing so much for the people …Once the BJP failed to compete with them fairly, they first arrested Manish Sisodia and now they arrested Kejriwal without any evidence. This is unacceptable.”

(Himanshu Harsh is an intern with The Indian Express)