Reminiscent of his sit in at Railway Bhawan on January 19,2014, protesting police inaction on sale of narcotic substances in Khirki Extension area and corruption in transfer postings of Delhi Police officials, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and the entire dispensation took to streets on Monday marching from CM's residence to lieutenant-Governors (lG) Anil Baijal office on the CCTV row.
Kejriwal's protest infront of Raj Niwas was followed by a sit-in outside the l-G office demanding to meet him and ask not to “stall” the CCTV project “under pressure from the BJP”.
In the high tension drama that unfolded on the streets of national Capital, Kejriwal led his ministerial colleagues including Sisodia and PWD minister Satyender Jain and all other MlAs of the party. Ahead of the protest march, Kejriwal slammed the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), alleging that it does not want the CCTV project to be executed which is why it is being stalled through the l-G.
Kejriwal decided to stage a 'dharna' outside the l-G office after he was told by the Delhi Police officials deployed at l-G office that CM and his ministers can meet the l-G but AAP legislators will not be allowed to accompany them. In order to register his protest over the l-G's reported decision, Kejriwal, his Ministers, legislators and AAP supporters sat on a 'dharna' barely 100 metres from Baijal's office in protest.
“The l-G does not want to meet MlAs. He only wants to meet me and cabinet ministers. l-G will have to meet the MlAs. I will meet him along with the ministers and the MlAs,” Kejriwal said.
The protesters chanted Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajan “Raghupati Raghav, Raja Ram” and prayed for “good sense” to prevail on the l-G.The protest near Baijal's office disrupted the movement of vehicles in the area. A large number of police personnel were deployed to handle the situation.
Kejriwal took to Twitter slamming l-G . “If l-G is reading this tweet, I wud urge him to meet us n discuss. Democracy runs on dialogue , not by Police,” he tweeted.
Sisodia also took twitter slamming the AAP's arch rival BJP. “Why BJP is strongly protesting against CCTV in DelhiIJ Because if in gali, mollah, and streets CCTV would be installed then there dirty politics would be caught in camera,” tweeted Sisodia.
The march proceeded under heavy police presence and during the two KM long march the protesters raised slogans against the l-G and the BJP.
In its 2015 manifesto election, the AAP had promised to install at least 10 lakh CCTV cameras in the city for the security of women.
“The committee set up by the l-G is very dangerous. The committee has been set up to stall CCTV project,” said Kejriwal .
The AAP has been opposing the l-G-appointed committee constituted for preparing common framework for installation and monitoring of CCTV cameras.
On Sunday, Baijal wrote to Kejriwal, saying it was “unfortunate” that the public and media were being “misled” on the issue “repeatedly and deliberately”.
Hours after Baijal's letter, Kejriwal wrote back to the lt governor,seeking to know why he was “politicising” the issue of women safety.
Kejriwal alleged that Baijal had set up the committee “arbitrarily”, bypassing the elected government and sought to know why he was “violating” the Constitution.