As Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided the residence of AAP’s Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday, the scene outside turned into a storm of resistance, with hundreds of party workers and local residents gathering in protest. Chanting “Pehle lade the Goron se, ab ladenge Choron se,” AAP leaders pointed out that the BJP is using the raid to divert attention from questions surrounding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree.
MLA Sanjeev Jha dismissed ED’s claim of irregularities in hospital construction, pointing out that Saurabh Bharadwaj was not even a minister at the time, and warned that the more the BJP tries to intimidate AAP leaders, the more the party will confront them with uncomfortable questions.
Senior AAP leader and MLA Sanjeev Jha said the raid at Saurabh Bharadwaj’s residence has nothing to do with investigating corruption. He pointed out that the ED claims the alleged irregularities took place when Saurabh Bharadwaj was a minister, yet he was not even in office during that period. “If this were truly a corruption probe, a premier agency like the ED would have at least done its basic homework—was Saurabh Bharadwaj a minister then? Did any scam occur during his tenure? The answer is no. This makes it clear that the ED, acting at the Centre’s behest, is not investigating graft but staging a raid to distract from questions about PM Modi’s degree,” Sanjeev Jha asserted.
He further asked why, when the BJP lodged a complaint with the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), the ED suddenly appeared in the case. “What connection does Saurabh Bharadwaj have with this issue? Why is he being raided when he wasn’t even a minister at the time? The truth is, this raid is happening because he is asking tough questions and the BJP wants to silence and intimidate him,” Sanjeev Jha said.
Dismissing the intimidation tactics, he declared, “Why should we fear the ED sent by the Centre? All our top leaders have gone through jail, yet these agencies have not found a single penny of wrongdoing. The more the BJP tries to suppress us, the more every AAP worker will rise to ask questions about its failures. Modi ji, forget these raids—show the country your degree.”