New Delhi [India]: As the Aam Aadmi Party leaders were detained for protesting outside the CBI office in the national capital, party leader Jasmine Shah on Sunday asked if the “central government has converted Delhi to North Korea” which is governed by a dictatorship.
This comes after AAP leaders including Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Atishi, Kailash Gahlot and Saurabh Bharadwaj who were protesting outside the CBI office earlier today against CM Arvind Kejriwal’s questioning by CBI were detained and brought to Najafgarh police station in Delhi. AAP also held a protest in Punjab’s Amritsar earlier today against the CBI questioning of Kejriwal in the Delhi excise case.
Addressing a press conference here, Shah said, “Kejriwal did not try to duck the summons. He will cooperate in the future also. But does that mean that you will not allow a common man to protest? Have you made Delhi a North Korea? It is a matter of shame. The country is watching that democracy is being strangulated.”
The AAP leader further alleged that the right to protest in the country is “dead”.
“The right to protest is a sacred right in any democracy. Police was deployed outside the residences of MLAs and said that they would not let them get outside. They picked them up who came outside their residences. Delhi Police detained all the leaders who were protesting silently and waiting for Arvind Kejriwal to come out. The police took them to an unidentified place. The right to protest is dead,” he alleged.
Earlier, fearing that Central Bureau of Investigation may arrest Arvind Kejriwal as the questioning is underway at the CBI headquarters in the national capital, AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai convened a meeting at the party office.
The office bearers, district president, national secretaries and other leaders of the party were asked to join the meeting.
Earlier, AAP leaders including Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh and others were detained by the Delhi Police for protesting near the CBI office in the national capital on Sunday.
The detained AAP leaders were heard chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“BJP suffers from Kejriwal phobia. It is because of Kejriwal’s fear that the BJP has come down to such an act. It is a cowardly act. We are not scared of jail,” Raghav Chadha said.
The AAP is protesting against the questioning of CM Kejriwal by the CBI in the Excise policy case.
Ahead of his appearance before the central investigative agency in connection with the excise policy case, Kejriwal paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in the national capital on Sunday.
Kejriwal was accompanied by his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Maan, AAP MP Sanjay Singh and other top leaders of the party.
Before heading to the CBI office, Kejriwal said that the central agency will arrest him if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has given the orders.
In a video message released on Sunday morning, Kejriwal said, “They (CBI) have called me today and I will definitely go. They are very powerful, they can send anyone to jail. If BJP has ordered CBI to arrest me, then CBI will obviously follow their instructions.”
Earlier today, Raghav Chadha called Kejriwal “Lord Krishna” and called Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as “Kansa”.
“Kansa knew that Lord Shri Krishna would finish him and, hence, made every effort and hatched many conspiracies to inflict harm on Shri Krishna. He could not even harm a hair on his head. Similarly, today the BJP knows that the AAP will bring their downfall,” Chadha said.
