Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been summoned by the CBI for questioning, on Saturday drew attention to former governor Satya Pal Malik’s claim on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand on corruption.
Kejriwal said in a webcast: “Satya Pal Malikji said that PM Modi is not against corruption, he doesn’t mind anyone scamming the nation. Satya Pal Malik is not an AAP functionary. He is a very senior and highly respected BJP leader who is considered to be very close to the PM…. I had made the same allegations in my speech (in the Delhi Assembly last month). I can for once understand their reservations against me. But when their own former governor is saying so, one has to believe him.”
In an interview to the journalist Karan Thapar uploaded on The Wire on Friday evening, Malik had said Modi “does not hate corruption very much.” Malik, who has served as governor of Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa and Meghalaya between 2017 and 2022, had earlier criticised the Modi government’s handling of the farmers’ movement.
On March 28 in the Delhi Assembly, Kejriwal had claimed without proof that Modi had invested in the Adani group.
Kejriwal said: “Modiji, if you think Kejriwal is corrupt, then perhaps there isn’t a single honest man in this world. The focal point of this whole controversy is not corruption. It’s just theatrics…. Our number two (former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia) was arrested, our number three (former AAP minister Satyendar Jain) was arrested, now they are after me.”
The CBI has called Kejriwal for questioning on Sunday in the liquor policy casefor which Sisodia is already behind bars under investigation.
The controversial liquor policy, under which Delhi PSUs exited the business, lasted for eight months until it was withdrawn last July after lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena requested a CBI probe. Sisodia attributed losses to the exchequer to last-minute tweaking of the policy by previous LG Anil Baijal.
The Enforcement Directorate, which also probed the case, didn’t list any minister as accused, although Kejriwal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC K. Kavitha — the daughter of Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao — and YSRCP MP M. Sreenivasulu are mentioned with regard to the alleged conspiracy to facilitate liquor cartels.
However, the CBI has named Sisodia as an accused in its FIR, which the AAP sees as political vendetta.
“After investigating all of us for a whole year, they alleged that a sum of Rs 100 crore was taken as a bribe. Where is this money stashed? Why has no one been able to trace it?” Kejriwal said.
