New Delhi, March 1 – Fresh from a morale-boosting reprieve from a Delhi court in the liquor policy case, AAP National Convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that he is not corrupt as he loves India and hit out at the BJP and the Congress party for "duping" the nation.
Addressing a rally at Jantar Mantar, he said, "The day before yesterday, a Delhi court gave a historic verdict – in favour of the people of Delhi, in favour of the people of the country. I want to congratulate the people of Delhi and the country for this historic decision... In such a fearful atmosphere, the judge delivered such a courageous verdict."
He said he can’t stand anybody’s misdeed of cheating or treason against the country. “The Congress government was thrown out of power in 2014 after people got fed up with its scams like the coal scam, 2G scam or the Commonwealth Games scam. People had high hopes for the new government. But have you got anything from it?” he asked.
The AAP convenor said in the past 12 years, the BJP government at the Centre has ruined the country. “Today, the roads and sewers are in ruins. The airlines sector is in bad shape, the railway sector is in bad shape, and even the air is poisonous,” he said, painting a grim picture of the banking, education and health sectors as well.
He alleged there is a massive Rs 20,000 crore drugs racket in Gujarat and dared BJP leaders to act over it.
Kejriwal said that in the past four years, the people of Delhi have suffered due to conspiracies of the BJP. “They kept alleging that Kejriwal is corrupt, he swallowed Rs 100 crore,” he said, clarifying that there is no proof to blame him.
The verdict of the court has now clarified that the BJP is lying and Kejriwal is “completely honest”, said the AAP leader at the rally attended by party workers from several states, including Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Accusing the BJP of hating him, he alleged the court verdict is a slap on the face of top BJP leaders who were personally monitoring the investigation in the case to implicate AAP leaders, including him, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh.
Describing himself as a patriot who loves India, Kejriwal said after graduating from IIT, he could have gone abroad, but he stayed back to serve the country and improve the decayed system.
“I love my India. I like my country. I have not done any corruption,” he said, accusing the BJP of ordering multiple inquiries against him but failing to prove corruption of even one rupee.
“I challenge anyone to prove that I have taken a bribe of even one rupee from any contractor or vendor while signing files as Chief Minister for 10 years. I will quit politics if anyone proves that I am corrupt,” he said.
“When I joined the Income Tax Department, a chartered accountant came and got a case settled, but I refused to take a bribe. The entire department gradually came to know that I am honest. I carried this honesty to politics when I became the Chief Minister,” he said.