New Delhi: AAP leaders and workers Monday held protests in several states against the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia by CBI, with the party alleging that it was done to divert the public attention from the Adani issue.
Besides Delhi, protests were held in Chandigarh, Bhopal, Jaipur, Srinagar, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai and other cities against Sisodia’s arrest in connection with alleged corruption in the now-scrapped excise policy relating to the sale of alcohol.
“The leader who has been working hard for the development of poor children has been arrested by the CBI. Manish Sisodia’s house was thoroughly raided but nothing was found. This is happening to divert the attention of the public from the outrage over Adani,” AAP national spokesperson Sanjay Singh told reporters here.
However, BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia said that with its drama, the Aam Aadmi Party is signalling that it won’t let probe agencies do their work. Bhatia described the AAP as “Arajak (anarchic) Apradh (crime) Party” and said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seems to have taken oath on the Constitution to destroy it.
In Delhi, about 80 AAP protesters were detained after they clashed with security personnel during a protest march against the arrest of Sisodia from the party office to BJP headquarters in Central Delhi.
The Delhi Police set up barricades on several roads leading to DDU Marg where both the AAP office and BJP headquarters are located.
A large number of paramilitary force personnel were also deployed to control the protesters, officials said, adding drones were used to monitor the situation.
As the protesters led by senior AAP leaders Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi tried to march towards the BJP headquarters at DDU Marg, police prevented them by deploying personnel and erecting barricades.
However, when they tried to jump over the barricades, police swung into action and detained several of them, officials said.
While pushing protesters back, some police personnel briefly entered the AAP office, said party leaders who also raised slogans against the police.
“This is the height of BJP’s dictatorship. They are now barging into our party office and trying to detain our leaders,” party leaders Adil Ahmad Khan and Atishi said addressing the crowd.
Later in the day, a special court here remanded Sisodia to five-day custody of the CBI till March 4.
In Chandigarh, several party leaders and workers also protested against the Centre, alleging that it was misusing the central agencies to target political rivals.
Several party leaders, including Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, were later taken into preventive custody by the Chandigarh police.
Speaking to reporters, Cheema accused the BJP of targeting the elected governments of political rivals in the states and booking their leaders in false cases.
“The BJP has become a danger for democracy in the country,” alleged Cheema.
They carried placards which read “shiksha mantri tujhe salaam” (salute to education minister) with a picture of Sisodia.
Goa unit of the Aam Aadmi Party protested outside the Bharatiya Janata Party’s office in Panaji to condemn the arrest, dubbing the action against Sisodia as “murder of democracy”.
In Srinagar, police foiled an attempt by AAP workers to take out a protest march. The AAP workers assembled at the party office at Rajbagh and raised slogans like “Shiksha Mantri Tujhe Salaam”, “Gundagardi nahi chalegi”, decrying Sisodia’s arrest.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders slammed the BJP over Sisodia’s arrest.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the people of Delhi will respond to it by ensuring the saffron party’s defeat in all seven Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 polls.
“By arresting Manish Sisodia ji, who brought revolutionary changes in the field of education in Delhi, BJP has proved that it is not only against education but also against the future of the children of Delhi,” Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.
“The people of Delhi will respond to it by defeating the BJP in all the seven seats in the next Lok Sabha elections,” the SP chief added.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also lashed out at the BJP, and said the central agencies were being used to intimidate the opposition parties and termed it as an attack on democracy.
Hitting out at the saffron party, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren alleged that it is a “brazen attempt” by the BJP-led government at the Centre to suppress democratically elected state governments.
Soren said the arrest of Sisodia is “disappointing and disheartening”.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that most of the CBI officers were opposed to arresting his deputy Sisodia but did so due to “political pressure”.
“I am told that most CBI officers were against Manish’s arrest. All of them have huge respect for him and there is no evidence against him. But the political pressure to arrest him was so high that they had to obey their political masters,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.
Reacting to the CM’s claim, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari accused him of fabricating facts regarding Sisodia’s arrest.
“Similar kinds of fake news was spread by you regarding IB in Gujarat (during assembly elections). Now everyone knows what you write and say is fabricated. Let the law take its course. The Liquor Minister’s liquor scam probe will grow. This is your fear,” he said.
Sisodia’s arrest, one of the high-profile actions against an opposition leader, came about eight months after that of Satyendar Jain, Delhi’s then health minister, in June last year.
Both ministers have led what the Aam Aadmi Party describes as the successful transformation of Delhi’s education and health services, contributing to the party’s popularity and continued electoral success.
PTI