KEJRIWAL REMOVES MINISTER TO SAVE HIS OWN SKIN: AJAY MAKEN

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Ajay Maken said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was trying to take a high moral ground by removing  Aam Aadmi Party Government’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister Asim Ahmed Khan from his Cabient on corruption charges, and seeking a CBI enquiry against him,  before the CBI and other agencies could act. He said Kejriwal took this sudden step just to save his skin. Shri Maken wondered why  Kejriwal did not take a high moral ground when his former Law Minister Jitender Tomar was arrested for forgery of his law degree, and former Law Minister Somnath Bharti was arrested for violence against his wife, and Manoj Kumar was arrested for cheating? Shri Maken said Asif Ahmed Khan held charge of the sensitive Food and Civil Supplies Ministry and must have signed hundreds of important files, and there might have been corruption involved, but who would enquire about those things, and be held accountable?

Shri Ajay Maken said within eight months, one third of the Kejriwal Government’s Ministers had to go for corruption and other serious crimes, and many other MLAs are facing various other charges, but Kejriwal has not removed any of them from the party. Shri Maken said Kejriwal was solely responsible for these developments as he had handpicked the Ministers and the MLA candidates, as he bypassed internal democracy to act in a dictatorial manner.

Shri Maken wanted to know why the Kejriwal Government has not constituted the  Jan Lokpal or appointed a Lokayukta, as the post of the  Lokayukta has been lying vacant since November,  2013. He wondered what was holding up Kejriwal from constituting the Jan Lokpal though the AAP Government has been in power for the past 240 days. He said the  Kejriwal Ministry had resigned after 49 days in office in its first stint, on the plea that the AAP Government was not being allowed to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill. He said it was for the first time in the history of the Delhi Assembly that the Monsoon session was not held, for had the Monsoon session been held, then the AAP Government would have been compelled to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill, and if the Lokpal was constituted, many of the  AAP Ministers and MLAs would have gone to jail. He said even Jitender Tomar was removed from the AAP Ministry only after the Delhi Congress held two massive demonstrations. He said  if Punjab MPs Dharamveer Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa could be removed from the party for questioning lack of international democracy, why Kejriwal has not removed his guilty Ministers and MLAs from the party.  He said it was surprising that AAP came to power on the anti-corruption plank, but now the AAP Government was deeply immersed in corruption.