Poison remark row: Arvind Kejriwal slams CEC, Shah says AAP chief making excuses

Earlier in the day, the EC had written to Kejriwal, saying his allegation that BJP-ruled Haryana had poisoned Delhi’s water supply from the Yamuna river was prima facie “promoting disharmony and enmity between different groups”. The poll panel asked him to submit evidence to support his allegation by 11 am Friday.

Asked about the EC letter, Kejriwal said, “Respectfully, I want to ask the ECI why they can’t see how money and bedsheets are being distributed across the city… We told them whose house money was stashed in, but they did not see anything. The ECI is engaging in politics. Why? Because Rajiv Kumar wants a job post-retirement. I want to tell him that history will not forgive him. The mess he has made of the Election Commission, no one has managed before.”

“I know they will put me in jail in two days, let them do it. The kind of language used in the letter does not suit the EC. If he (Kumar) wants to participate in politics, contest from one seat in Delhi. There is open gundagardi; money is being distributed openly… This sort of election has never been seen anywhere in India. I will send three (bottles filled with water from the Yamuna) to them. We have 20 bottles… They can drink it during a press conference and we will concede that we have made a mistake,” he said.

Also Thursday, the BJP slammed Kejriwal over his “poisoned” water remark. Addressing a poll really in Rohini, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Kejriwal was making “excuses” and levelling false charges against the BJP.

“Kejriwal says people from the BJP have mixed poison in the Yamuna to trouble the people of Delhi. I have come to tell Kejriwal that he should stop telling lies to win the election… You (Kejriwal) polluted Yamuna and forced people of Delhi to drink its water… They (AAP) keep making excuses… Kejriwal ji, leave if you cannot do anything. We will show how Delhi can be better governed,” Shah said, adding that the AAP leader had turned Delhi into a “kind of dustbin”.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused Kejriwal of “practising politics of polarisation” and said “when the Maha Kumbh is underway…  and devotees are visiting the Sangam with devotion… when a CM says there is poisonous water (in the Sangam)… it will trigger a dissipation in the quantum of devotion in the people’s hearts… here too there is an attempt to poison this. I protest against this type of politics”.

Acting on complaints by the BJP and Congress, the EC had written to Kejriwal on Tuesday asking him to provide the “factual and legal matrix” for his allegation made during the poll campaign. The EC had said that the complaint from Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on the high levels of ammonia in the water supply to Delhi from Haryana was being dealt with separately from Kejriwal’s “poisoning” allegation.

On Wednesday, Kejriwal said Delhi had recently received water from Haryana that was “highly contaminated and extremely poisonous for human health”.

The EC, in its letter to Kejriwal Tuesday, had cited relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the Model Code of Conduct, under which it can take action.

In Thursday’s letter to Kejriwal, the EC said it would take an appropriate decision without further reference failing his response by 11 am Friday. In reply to Kejriwal’s response, the EC said the response was “entirely silent on your public and widely circulated” statement regarding poisoning of water supply. It noted that all governments concerned should engage in securing sufficient and clean water for residents, and that it would leave the matter to the “competence and good discretion of the governments and agencies”.

“Coming back to your response on your statement under reference, Commission has prima facie found your allegations about poisoning of river Yamuna as promoting disharmony and enmity between different groups, and overall public disorder and unrest even by the most sober interpretation…as a prominent public figure and a former Chief Minister, the Commission need not remind you of the dire consequences that such utterances and actions of yours can have and leave permanent scars between well identifiable groups of residents of two States and/or living together in State of Haryana and NCT of Delhi,” the EC wrote.

The poll panel asked Kejriwal what kind of poison was mixed by Haryana, what was the supporting evidence about the quantity, nature and manner of detecting poison and the location where and the method of detection of the poison.