Saturday, January 18, 2014

Kejriwal defends Bharti, says Delhi Police should be under state govt

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal refused to believe that the state's Law Minister Somnath Bharti was in any manner wrong in dealing with the Delhi Police and a few women foreign nationals recently over an alleged drug and prostitution racket in a South Delhi locality.

The Delhi chief minister rather chose to blame the police for inaction and demanded strongly that the force should be within the jurisdiction of the state government rather than the Union home ministry.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost

"We want Delhi Police to come under Delhi government, the Bill is pending in Parliament since 2004," Kejriwal told CNN-IBN, Editor-in-Chief, Rajdeep Sardesai.

The chief minister expressed dismay that efforts are on to protect the police alleging that these illegal activities are going on right under the nose of the cops.

"When sex and drug rackets run in you locality then you will realise, this runs with police backing. Why are we defending the SHO? Instead of punishing the police, who are not doing their job, these people are defending them. Suspend four officers and Delhi Police will fall in line," Kejriwal said.

The Delhi chief minister also did not spare his former colleague Kiran Bedi for her recent pro-Narendra Modi remark. "She is promoting Narendra Modi's agenda. There is nothing wrong in that," he said.

Kejriwal however made it clear that despite the external support extended by the Congress he would go after the alleged misdeeds by the earlier Sheila Dikshit government.

"This support is unique in itself. They are supporting us on their own. We never asked for it. The support will not prevent us from ordering a probe into the role of the earlier Delhi government in the Commonweath Games scam," he said.

The Delhi chief minister said that he may have to fight Lok Sabha polls if his party wants him to despite being opposed to the idea personally.

"My ambition is not to become the prime minister. My ambition is that I want to remain an aam aadmi and go to see a movie with my family during weekend," Kejriwal said.

The Delhi chief minister did not agree that there would be a fiscal imbalance because of the large subsidies that his government recently announced.

"Lakhs have benefitted from free water. If I have given Rs 200 crore subsidy to public that too only for four months what is the harm," Kejriwal told CNN-IBN.

The chief minister also made his unhappiness with rebel MLA Vinod Kumar Binny open.

"If Binny is unhappy, he is free to quit," Kejriwal said.


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