A day after his release on bail, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday called upon party workers and people to fight against the “dictatorship” in the country and said his party will “take account of every atrocity committed against the people of Delhi”.
Targeting the BJP, he also said these people are not more powerful than the Constitution. Every person has to fight against this “dictatorship” which is not just putting leaders in jail but also harassing citizens, Sisodia said while addressing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers at its headquarters.
Expressing his gratitude for the support, Sisodia termed Supreme Court’s verdict granting him bail in Delhi excise policy case after 17 months as a victory of honesty and truth. “I was hoping that justice would be delivered in 7-8 months. It took 17 months, but honesty and truth have won,” he said in a spirirted address to AAP workers at party headquarters in Delhi.
He claimed that while in jail, he was not worried about getting bail but was pained seeing businessmen being put in prison in “fake cases just because they did not donate money to the BJP”.
“This web of ED and CBI was not created because Kejriwal’s name became a symbol of honesty in the whole country. BJP, which calls itself the biggest party in the world, could not prove in a single state that honest work is being done in one of their states. ‘Bhrastachar ka ek hi kaal, Kejriwal, Kejriwal,’” he said.
Sisodia told AAP workers that “we are just horses of a chariot but our real ‘saarthi’ (charioteer) is in jail, he will come out soon”.
Highlighting the struggles of the AAP and its leaders over the last one and half years, Sisodia expressed hope that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will also be released soon.
“For the past 17-18 months, and even before that, we’ve been fighting this entire battle. I was in jail, you all were protesting, Arvind is still in jail, but our lawyers are tirelessly moving from one court to another…Soon, we will also bring Arvind Kejriwal back…,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sisodia said that India will become a developed country by 2047 if every poor citizens of the country recieved quality education in government schools and that it would be a “jumla” (gimmick) if someone says otherwise.
He further vowed to continue his drive to make Delhi schools world class. “Vo (BJP) jail bhejne ki baat karte hai… hum apni jaan bhi dene ko taiyar hai…,” he said.
Seeking to target the BJP over the Vinesh Phogat issue, Sisodia, without taking the wrestler’s name, said she protested against its leader and people saw what happened at the Olympics. Phogat, who was disqualified from the Paris Olympics for being found 100 grams overweight ahead of her women’s 50kg final, was at the forefront of a lengthy protest alleging government inaction against former Wrestling Federation of India head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexual harassment by women wrestlers.
The Supreme Court on Friday gave Sisodia bail in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged excise policy “scam” and said his long incarceration of 17 months without trial had deprived him of the right to speedy justice.
