AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, dismissing the BJP’s proposed bill on forcing jailed Chief Ministers and Ministers to resign as a smokescreen to shield the party’s own corruption. The AAP Chief asked whether the Prime Minister, who inducts tainted politicians and elevates them to the posts of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, would resign by the same logic. He added that if a jailed leader is later proven innocent, the minister responsible for filing false cases should be the one sent behind bars.
Contrasting his own tenure with the BJP’s governance, Arvind Kejriwal said that under the so-called “Jail Government” there was never a shortage of electricity, water, medicines, or accountability in schools — but in just seven months of BJP’s rule, the system has collapsed.
Taking to X, AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal tagged Union Home Minister Amit Shah and wrote: “Should a person who welcomes criminals accused of serious offences into his party, gets their cases dismissed, and elevates them as ministers, deputy chief ministers, or even chief ministers, not be required to resign from his position? How many years of imprisonment should such a person face? And if someone is falsely implicated in a case, sent to jail, and later acquitted, how many years of imprisonment should the minister responsible for framing him face?”
The AAP Chief, in another post, wrote: “Under a political conspiracy, when the central government framed me in a false case and sent me to jail, I ran the government for 160 days from jail. In the last seven months, the BJP government in Delhi has made such a mess of Delhi that today the people of Delhi are remembering that jail government. At least during the jail government, there were no power cuts, water was supplied, free medicines were available in hospitals and mohalla clinics, free tests were conducted, Delhi wouldn’t be in such a bad state from one rain, private schools weren’t allowed to act arbitrarily and with thuggery.”
Senior AAP leader and Punjab Prabhari Manish Sisodia reposted Arvind Kejriwal’s post, quoting: “If someone is falsely implicated in a case, sent to jail, and later acquitted, then how many years of imprisonment should the minister who filed the false case against them receive?”
Addressing a press conference at the AAP headquarters, AAP’s Chief National Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar launched a strong rebuttal to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks, calling them a direct assault on democracy. She said that Amit Shah was effectively suggesting that if a leader refuses to bow before the BJP within 30 days—unlike leaders such as Himanta Biswa Sarma, Suvendu Adhikari, Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, and Hasan Mushrif—then their position will be taken away. “The BJP is threatening to sack democratically elected Chief Ministers and ministers, but if someone agrees to their diktats, then on the 32nd day at 5 am, they are sworn in,” Priyanka Kakkar said, calling it “a shameful day for democracy.”
Responding to Amit Shah’s claim that Arvind Kejriwal should not have run the government from jail, Priyanka Kakkar said, “The people do not care whether the government is run from inside jail or outside, as long as their work gets done. Delhiites fondly remember the period when Arvind Kejriwal ran the government from jail because electricity, water, schools, and hospitals were functioning far better than they are today. Under BJP rule, people are facing 8-hour power cuts, sewage water flooding streets, taps running dry or supplying drain water, skyrocketing school fees, and hospitals where neither tests nor treatment are available. People are missing Arvind Kejriwal’s governance, even when he was unjustly jailed.”
The AAP Chief National Spokesperson further pointed out that the BJP is targeting opposition leaders out of political vendetta. “When the BJP failed to match Kejriwal’s governance, it illegally disqualified 21 AAP MLAs, attempted horse-trading, and engaged in vote theft. Everyone knows BJP filed false cases against AAP leaders but failed to present a shred of evidence in court. The Supreme Court itself has called the Enforcement Directorate (ED) ‘crooked’ and the CBI a ‘caged parrot.’ The Court has also said there is no evidence against Kejriwal and that the ED acted with malice. Even in Satyendar Jain’s case, the CBI has started filing a closure report.”
Taking aim at the proposed legislation, Priyanka Kakkar said, “If a leader is corrupt, he should not be jailed for 30 days, he should be jailed for life. At the same time, if someone is proven innocent, those who filed false cases against him should be punished with the same sentence that the innocent leader was forced to undergo. This Bill is nothing but a ‘legalised method’ to break governments and weaken the Opposition.”
