Arvind Kejriwal and controversies go hand-in-hand. He never cease to keep away from troubles and this time its Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and BJP President Amit Shah who he seemed to aggravate.
In two separate instances, Kejriwal targeted both the BJP ministers with his alleged claims and criticizing comments.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 21 December, 2015 had filed a criminal defamation case against the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and 5 other AAP leaders for issuing false and defamatory statements against him and his family in connection with alleged irregularities in Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) when he was its president. Besides the criminal defamation case, Jaitley has also filed a civil defamation suit in the High Court seeking Rs 10 crore from Kejriwal and the other five AAP leaders- Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai .
Both the cases – one civil and the other criminal, entails a punishment of up to two years in jail for the AAP leaders.
Delhi High Court is likely to deliver on Wednesday its decision on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea to stay the proceedings before a trial court.
Even though the trial court had granted bail to Kejriwal and others on 7 April, 2016, Kejriwal further requested the trial courts to adjourn hearing on a criminal defamation case till the high court decided a related civil suit. But his plea was turned down by the trial court on 19 May. The high court had reserved its verdict on 25 July on Kejriwal’s plea challenging the trial court’s 19 May order.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who is representing Arvind Kejriwal in this case said “The trial court judge had said that he has no power to stay the proceedings.” During the arguments with the opposition lawyer, Jethmalani added, “Power to stay can be exercised by postponing the matter also,” to which, lawyers representing Jaitley, senior advocates Harish Salve and Siddharth Luthra, had said “in today’s world, the words used are more powerful than sword”.
According to Luthra, no harm will be caused to the AAP leaders’ reputation if both the civil suit before high court and the criminal proceedings before the trial court go simultaneously.
In another case, he criticised BJP President Amit Shah and called BJP an ‘anti-Hindu’ party. A day after his Surat rally, he created stir among the BJP government in Gujarat by alleging that they use violence against the Patidar and Dalit youths. He also posed questions regarding the Patel community agitation which started in July 2015.
His claims that BJP does not even leave Hindus when it comes to power and money, only shows how desperate he is to bring the opposition party down. Repeatedly, such claims and remarks have only landed him and his party members into trouble.
Clearly, he just can’t stay away from controversies!
