he arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sparked widespread protests across Punjab and Haryana, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) staging demonstrations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
In Haryana’s Kurukshetra, AAP workers attempted to march towards Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini's residence, prompting the police to resort to water cannons and lathi charges to disperse the crowd. Similar scenes unfolded in Punjab’s Mohali, where AAP protesters clashed with law enforcement while attempting to advance towards the Punjab BJP office in Chandigarh. AAP workers, in the presence of some Punjab Ministers, staged a demonstration on the Mohali-Chandigarh border. Cabinet Ministers — Harpal Singh Cheema, Aman Arora, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal — and several AAP workers were briefly detained.
The protestors, voicing their dissent against Kejriwal’s arrest, accused the BJP of attempting to suppress the rising popularity of the Delhi Chief Minister. AAP leaders maintained that the party would not succumb to the BJP's "dictatorship" and vowed to continue their fight against the ruling party's policies.
Punjab Minister Arora dubbed Kejriwal's arrest as the “murder of democracy”, adding that the BJP will have to face a backlash from the country's people for this.
Several AAP leaders in Haryana, including state unit chief Sushil Gupta and senior vice president Anurag Dhanda, sustained injuries during the clashes with the police. Gupta condemned the “brutal lathicharge” by Haryana Police and highlighted the injuries suffered by numerous party workers.
AAP Haryana’s media coordinator Vaibhav Tiwari said that more than hundred party workers sustained injuries, of whom over 70 were grievously hurt.
Kurukshetra Superintendent of Police Surinder Singh Bhoria, however, said that the police had used mild force and that about 15-16 workers and an equal number of security personnel had been wounded in the clash.
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema denounced Kejriwal's arrest as an assault on democracy, alleging that the BJP was resorting to authoritarian tactics to silence dissenting voices. “An undeclared emergency has been imposed in the country…The ruling BJP does not want that opposition leaders should even campaign and contest the Lok Sabha election,” he said.
Punjab Ministers Anmol Gagan Maan and Chetan Singh Jouramajra slammed the Central Government over Kejriwal’s arrest, saying that it was scared of his growing popularity and therefore wanted to stop the “good works” done by his Delhi government.
