‘Centre worried about Arvind Kejriwal, not corruption,’ says Sisodia day after CBI raid

Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Sisodia said: “After the Punjab elections, Kejriwal is being loved by masses across the country and they are seeing him as a national leader and alternative option. And this is worrying the BJP because of which they are fabricating false cases against me… All these are scripted.”

“Let me tell you what is the truth… First of all they (BJP) do not care about liquor scam. If they care about corruption and scam, they will not let people drink spurious alcohol sold illegally and let them die. Every year in Gujarat, Rs 10,000 crore excise duty theft/corruption takes place. Why are they not instructing the CBI to investigate and probe the matter there,” Sisodia asked.

Addressing an Important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/CJ0JPQmHt9

— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) August 20, 2022

“I will tell you what a real scam is… A real scam is the cave-in of the Bundelkhand Expressway that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Within five days of inauguration, the expressway caved in… This is a real scam… The CBI should have been sent to investigate this and the officers and people involved in the making of that expressway should be raided and investigation should be going on in that case. But corruption is not their agenda… Their real problem and worry is Arvind Kejriwal and his model of governance, education and health,” he added.

Waiving copies of two news items published in the front page of The New York Times (NYT) – one recently and one during the Covid pandemic – he said, “They are not concerned about the corruption in liquor policy or excise theft. They are worried because I am an education minister and a man of Arvind Kejriwal and he is expanding and people across the country and abroad love him and this is what is troubling and worrying them.”

“When the picture of thousands of Covid bodies being burned down around Ganga River banks was published in the front page of the NYT, the entire country felt ashamed… We did not feel good and happy about our governance in the country. But now when the story of the Delhi education model is on the front page of the NYT, every single citizen is happy and proud. This is not my achievement and the credit goes to children and teachers,” Sisodia said.

He termed the ongoing allegations and corruption cases on the now-scrapped Excise Policy false and baseless and referred to the Excise Policy as the country’s best policy. “The Excise Policy 2021-22 which is being discussed, criticised widely was the best policy formulated and implemented in Delhi. It is the country’s best policy, formulated and rolled out in fair transparency. It could have earned the government a profit of Rs 10,000 crore if former L-G Anil Baijal had not made changes in the policy just 48 hours before its implementation,” he said.

“They are saying that a big level scam happened in the Delhi Excise Policy. Yesterday, I saw in the news that Manoj Tiwari-ji in a press conference said Rs 8,000 crore scam in the policy, another BJP leader said Rs 1,100 crore scam and the Delhi L-G in his report said Rs 144 crore scam. But then I read the CBI’s FIR which mentions Rs 1 crore scam. Now, I want to say that all these are completely nonsense, false and baseless allegations,” Sisodia added.

Hinting several times that he would get arrested in the coming days, the deputy chief minister said, “The former L-G, with an intention to fail and destroy the policy, made changes in the policy just few days before its implementation. The CBI FIR says sources said this, sources said that… there is no truth in it at all… this is completely false, baseless.”

Targeting PM Modi, Sisodia compared Modi and Kejriwal and said, “When Kejriwal sees something good, he appreciates and learns it but Modi-ji tries to sabotage the model and the government. He uses all his power, money to use the CBI and ED to sabotage the government and its system. I want to tell him such petty politics to stop works in education and health model does not look good… Prime Minister par acha shobha nahi deta hai… Just two days ago, Kejriwal launched a mission to make India number one. Instead of supporting and appreciating the initiative of a chief minister who wants to develop the country’s health and education, Modi-ji tries to stop him and sends the CBI to raid his education minister’s house.”

“Kejriwal works and thinks about the poor, but Modi thinks about some rich millionaires and works for them… Kejriwal-ji thinks 24 hours about how to give education and good healthcare to a poor person while Modi-ji thinks and plots on how to destroy a good governance where his opponents are doing good for the public. It is evident, all states where the BJP was not in power have been destroyed and the government has collapsed… You can see it in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh etc… We work hard to make a government but Modi-ji only plots to destroy it. You are a PM, instead of supporting your states, why are you trying to sabotage a good government… These days he only dreams about how to use the CBI and ED and destroy the Opposition’s government in states,” said Sisodia.

The AAP leader also said that the 2024 Lok Sabha election will be Kejriwal versus Modi. “Till now, it was Modi versus who? The entire country is now coming forward to support Kejriwal and that is what is causing trouble for Modi-ji and that is why he is stopping him (Kejriwal) from doing good works. In the next three to four days they will arrest me and other AAP leaders, but we are not scared. You cannot break us with your CBI, ED, money and power… we are sons of Bhagat Singh and we do not fear going to jail… If needed we will sacrifice our life for the development of this nation, to provide education and health to all citizens. The 2024 elections will be Kejriwal versus modi… You cannot break us and stop us,” he added.

Speaking to the media, the deputy chief minister thanked the CBI for behaving well and for treating his family members nicely. “CBI conducted raids at both my house at Mathura Road and the deputy CM and education ministry’s office at Delhi Sachiwalay. The CBI officers in both the places were nice and behaved well with my family members and others. No one wants CBI in their home, but they had directions from above so they raided my house; but I want to thank them for their good behaviour towards my family members,” he said.