Under a cloud after raids at his home over allegations of corruption in the now-scrapped liquor excise policy, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has claimed that the BJP offered to drop all cases against him if he broke the AAP and joined the BJP.
Before he left for a two-day visit to Gujarat with AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Monday, Sisodia claimed this in a Twitter statement and added that he “would not bow in front of the corrupt and schemers”.
He tweeted: “I have got a message from BJP — leave AAP and join BJP, We will close all CBI/ED cases. My reply to BJP – I am a descendant of Maharana Pratap, I am a Rajput. I will sacrifice myself but will not bow in front of the corrupt and schemers. The cases against me are false. You can do whatever you want,” his tweet read.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on arriving in Ahmedabad with Sisodia later, stated that a man who should be honoured with a Bharat Ratna for his pioneering efforts in the education system, was being bounded by raids.
On a two-day tour of Sabarkantha district in North Gujarat and Bhavnagar in Saurashtra region, Kejriwal told reporters, “People across the country are unhappy with this. This man should have been entrusted with the entire education system of the country for performing miracles with government schools in five years.”
“Have you no shame? You want to conduct a CBI raid at such a person’s home? He should in fact be given the Bharat Ratna,” Kejriwal asserted.
Replying to a question about Sisodia’s recent statement about the Rajput community being miffed over the raids at Sisodia’s home, the Delhi Chief Minister stated, “People from all communities – Kshatriya, Vaishya, Brahmin, SC, ST, women, children – are angry. He might even be arrested in the next three to four days, though the entire case against him is fake. The education system would be adversely affected for the next three to four months and children would suffer.”
“We will do our best to ensure the good work does not stop, but it would surely be disrupted for sure,” he added.
Defending his government’s liquor policy, Kejriwal said his party had to put it on hold after increasing pressure from central agencies and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. “There was a proposal to open 850 shops but we gave permission to only 350. That policy was actually good and we are ready to have a debate on it,” he said.
“But we were under pressure to roll it back because if we hadn’t done it then all shops would have been shut and illicit liquor would have started being sold in Delhi. That’s why we decided to go with the old policy despite its hundred shortcomings, so that at least spurious liquor is not being sold in Delhi,” he added.
Asked if he would do away with the prohibition policy in Gujarat if voted to power, the AAP chief strongly supported the dry law and stated, “The prohibition policy will remain in force in Gujarat but we will not allow the illicit liquor business. We will not allow the Rs 10,000 crore illicit liquor and run our party like they are doing in Gujarat.”
