Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday departed from the Aam Aadmi Party’s stand that the Centre has misled people on the clash in the Galwan Valley and took the ultra-nationalist high road of blaming China for “sending” Covid-19 to India.

He said in a televised address, “Aaj pura desh China ke khilaaf do yuddh lad raha hai. Ek China ke dwara bheje gaye virus ke khilaaf, aur doosra China ke khilaaf border ke oopar yuddh lad raha hai… Aur in dono yuddhon ko hamne pure desh ko milke ladna hai. Isme bilkul rajneeti nahi honi chahiye. Isme koi partybaazi nahi, gutbaazi nahi.”

(Today, the whole country is fighting two battles against China. The first is against the virus sent by China, and the second is the battle against China on the border… The whole country should unite to fight these two battles. There should be no politicking, groupism, on this.)

Kejriwal’s view appeared to be in contrast with that of his party MP Sanjay Singh, who on behalf of the AAP had accused the Centre of “betrayal” on the border.

Singh had said: “First the Centre claimed that two of our soldiers were martyred and then they said 20 of our soldiers were martyred. The Centre then claimed that none of our army men was in the custody of China but today news reports have come that China has released 10 of our men who were in their custody. …the intention of misleading the people of India is a massive betrayal by the BJP government.”