Hours after the AAP accused the BJP of trying to finish it off by misusing central probe agencies, the Delhi BJP on Tuesday hit back, claiming that it was Arvind Kejriwal who was finishing off his own party by his "sins" and claimed that such a "massive scam" could not have taken place without his clear approval.
"Jaisi karni waisi bharni (you reap what you sow)," former Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told a press conference, a day after the Enforcement Directorate summoned Kejriwal on November 2 for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. Dismissing the AAP's allegations that the Central government was trying to finish it off, he said it was the Kejriwal-led party which was finishing itself off with its "misdeeds, corruption and scams".
Prasad claimed the BJP has nothing to do with central probe agencies' action against the AAP and that the legal process was following its own course in the matter. "What agencies do is none of our concern. It is for them to decide." He rhetorically asked did the BJP tell them to frame such an excise policy that "gives them commission and monopoly to select firms". "Such a massive scam could not have taken place without Kejriwal's clear approval," the former Union minister claimed.
He reiterated the charges that the AAP allowed a "southern lobby" to dictate its excise policy so that the party could use the money for election purposes in Goa to fulfil its aspiration of becoming a national party. What the lobby dictated was accepted by the Delhi government as its excise policy and the one earlier formed by a group of ministers was sought to be changed, he alleged. Prasad claimed that the AAP has been the "biggest letdown" in India's political history, noting that its rise was marked by a lot of hope as many non-political people also got associated with it along with the "baba", a reference to Anna Hazare.
They all withdrew, he said, and asked why the likes of Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Shazia Ilmi and Kiran Bedi, the last two of them now with the BJP, left the party after being closely associated with its rise. The AAP has given people a big betrayal as they turned out to be entirely different from what they promised, he claimed.
BJP MP and former chief of the party's Delhi unit Manoj Tiwari claimed that Kejriwal himself was finishing off the AAP by his "sins".
"Kejriwal is facing the curse of the mothers and sisters of Delhi whose families were destroyed as liquor stores were opened in every nook and corner of the city under the Kejriwal government's new liquor policy," he alleged. He further claimed that Kejriwal had vowed to fight corruption but was now himself involved in it.
"The ED summoning him for questioning is very important since the Supreme Court, while denying bail to Manish Sisodia, has observed that a money trail is established in the excise policy case," Tiwari said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said in a democratic state like India no Party can destroy another party, it is the people of the country who decide the fortune of political parties and in this case AAP leaders know they have lost all connect with the people.
“AAP leaders have been themselves saying that Kejriwal will be arrested. This is a propaganda to get some sympathy, he said.
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on November 2 for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.