New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here Tuesday and discussed the situation in riot-hit northeast Delhi. After the meeting Kejriwal said he has requested Modi that those responsible for the violence – irrespective of party affiliation – ‘should not be spared.
It was the first meeting of Kejriwal with Modi after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) returned to power in the national capital for a third consecutive term. The meeting, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Parliament, lasted half an hour.
The Congress however, slammed following his meeting with Mod. It said that Kejriwal sounded like he was there to give a clean chit to the Centre and the PM over the communal riots in the national capital.
Emerging from the meeting, Kejriwal appreciated the Delhi police for being proactive in controlling the situation when rumours were being spread Sunday night.
“Delhi police acted in a swift manner to control the situation when rumours were spread Sunday night. Had the police acted with the same efficiency on Monday and Tuesday last week when riots were confined in a district, so many lives could have been saved,” Kejriwal told reporters.
The Delhi chief minister said he also requested the prime minister that such incidents should not happen and Modi agreed.
Urging Modi to take stern action against those involved in the violence, Kejriwal said, “I told him we should try and ensure that such riots do not happen again in the national capital. Those who are responsible for the clashes – whether they belong to any party – should not be spared, I appealed to the prime minister.”
When asked did he discuss the hate speeches given by BJP leaders, Kejriwal said they did not discuss it specifically.
Describing the meeting as a courtesy call by him after being reelected as chief minister, Kejriwal said he sought the prime minister’s help for the development of Delhi.
The Congress, however, did not like the way Kejriwal went about things.
The party’s spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said it seemed, from the way Kejriwal spoke to the media after meeting the prime minister that ‘AAP was not the BJP’s B-Team but it was the saffron party’s team’.
“The body language and the words of the Delhi Chief Minister sounded like he was there to give an official clean chit to the ruling party, the Centre and the Prime Minister,” Singhvi said at a press conference.
Singhvi slammed Kejriwal for not raising the issue of hate speeches by BJP leaders in Delhi with the prime minister.
“Did the CM seek registration of FIRs forthwith, did he say the Home Minister (Amit Shah) should either resign or be reined in, did he by name demand action against Kapil Mishra. It seemed to me that a supporter of the BJP or a member of the Union Council of Ministers was speaking after he met the PM,” Singhvi said.
“What is this weakness, what is this helplessness, what is this compulsion, what is this secret, what is this mystery, what is the mystery of this new found friendship, this support and why has the CM of Delhi succumbed or surrendered in this clear, crass manner,’ the Rajya Sabha MP asserted.
PTI