Twenty
days have elapsed from the incarceration of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal, firstly in ED’s custody and thereafter in judicial custody. L’
affaire Aam Adami Party and Arvind Kejriwal have been controversial for over a
year. He and his party have been claiming from housetops for the purity and
transparency in public life. But nobody ever imagined that AAP and particularly
its leader Kejriwal would plumb to such an unfathomable depth of immorality and
opacity. Now leaders of AAP are saying that Kejriwal will continue to run the
government from jail. However, the question is how will it be feasible?
Will it not be a gross violation of constitutional propriety?
Mr Kejriwal
had cocked the snook to the summons of the ED nine times and at long last he
appeared at the directions of
the court. If he had nothing to conceal in the liquor gate scam, he could have
appeared at the first call but always avoided appearing by saying that the
summonses of the ED were nothing but tools of harassment. Instead of assisting
the ED in investigating the multi-crore liquor scam, he started thumping his
chest by blaming it (ED) for working at the behest of a political party in
power at the Centre.
In fact, in
law, while the prosecution must prove the accused person to be guilty of
the crime at the same time it is also the onus on the accused to prove his
innocence. Kejriwal and other leaders of his party are in the dock, and it is a
general perception that they have made money by illegal means. Their recent
acts and insistence on running the government from jail further reinforce the
perception of the public that the AAP government consisted of a bunch of
criminals and corrupt persons. After all, jails are meant for criminals and not
for constitutional functionaries. Seeing the conduct of Kejriwal and his party
one finds that even Lalu Yadav, Hemant Soren and Jayalalithaa have been far
better than these lumpen elements.
While in
jail, Kejriwal will be kept as per jail manuals, then how can he hold the
cabinet meeting from the prison cell? This shows that he and his party have no
sense of shame in harping on running the government from the prison cell. This
also reflects insecurity and the mens rea of Kejriwal otherwise he could
have pleaded for the appointment of any person to be his successor as the Chief
Minister of Delhi.
It is more
shocking that why Lieutenant Governor is keeping silent over the constitutional
breakdown of this magnitude. Why is he allowing the wife of the Chief
Minister to sit on his chair to read out his letters and messages without any
constitutional obligations? Kejriwal should have been dismissed, if he declined
to resign, on the day he was put in judicial custody.
The less
said about the non-sensical speech of another AAP leader Sanjay Singh after his
release on bail the better. His speech contained no substance; it was all froth
and fury. It was hilariously ridiculous from beginning to end. His logic was
full of the bravado of a dishonest politician.
Nobody had
thought that a party which started with claims of upholding high moral virtues
in public would go down in history with the abominable low level of
immorality.
