Before, the Assembly election in Goa last year, Arvind Kejriwal had exhorted the voters to accept bribe offered by other parties to vote for them during the Goa election. On one hand, the Prime Minister publicly vows to punish the corrupt and on the other, the Delhi Chief Minster Arvind Kejriwal publicly supports the giving and taking of bribe. The Election Commission of India had ordered an FIR to be registered against Kejriwal for his comments. Now, a court in Panaji has issued notice in this matter to Arvind Kejriwal and fixed the next date of hearing on 8 February. In more trouble for the Aam Aadmi Party supremo, the Delhi High Court directed Kejriwal to finish the cross examination of Arun Jaitley by 12 February. The High Court said that the “sufficient opportunities have been granted to Kejriwal to cross examine Jaitley”. Till now, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been called on 8 different dates and 250 questions have been put to him. Now, the High Court does not want to entertain the delaying tactics of Arvind Kejriwal and his lawyers and prolong the cross examination.
In December 2015, Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that CBI had raided his office to scuttle a probe into alleged irregularities in the DDCA under Jaitley. He had then quizzed Arun Jaitley by tweeting “Why is Jaitleyji so scared of DDCA probe? What is his role in DDCA scam? Arun Jaitley decided to not only inform Kejriwal of his role but also to provide him an opportunity, too, to place before the Court any incriminating documents that he (Kejriwal) may have that could prove his (Jaitley’s) role in any corruption during his tenure as President of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) from 1999 to 2014. Arun Jaitley has filed 2 separate cases of defamation against Arvind Kejriwal, by which either Arvind Kejriwal can prove his charges in a court of law or be prepared to pay the penalty. While Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may have unabashedly questioned the Indian Army’s surgical strikes after the Uri attack in September 2016, he is a (forced) contributor to the Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties. During the pendency of the defamation case, the Delhi High Court had ordered Arvind Kejriwal last year to pay cost of Rs 5000 over his delaying tactics in the case. The Court had ordered that Kejriwal deposit the amount in the ‘Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties’. Earlier, too, Kejriwal had been imposed a cost of Rs 10,000.
Arvind Kejriwal is infamous for levelling false and baseless allegations against all and sundry. It was high time that someone called out his bluff on levelling unsubstantiated against public personalities holding responsible positions. By making Kejriwal slog it out in the Courts, Jaitley has ensured that Kejriwal receives a lesson in restraint in exercising restraint and responsibility in political discourse. The Delhi Chief Minister has built his entire political career on slander. And staying true to his dubious character, when a former Minister of his own cabinet Kapil Mishra publicly accused him of accepting bribe, Kejriwal went into the silent mode.
Till date, Arvind Kejriwal has not responded to the sensational charges made by Kapil Mishra. Even the pretense of personal honesty of Arvind Kejriwal was shattered recently when Arvind Kejriwal decided to send 2 largely unknown persons from the Aam Admi Party (AAP) to the Rajya Sabha. Kumar Vishwas, who is widely popular among the workers of AAP was denied the Rajya Sabha ticket has hinted that he was overlooked in favour of the billionaire Sushil Gupta and the Chartered Accountant N D Gupta. Sushil Gupta, who had left the Congress just over 2 months ago, in particular, was inducted into the party and sent to the Rajya Sabha with a view to strengthen AAP’s finances.
Kejriwal’s former party colleague Yogendra Yadav had even lamented the downfall of Kejriwal in a tweet. Yadav had said that he was ashamed that he was associated with Arvind Kejriwal. He had then tweeted that despite Kejriwal’s other faults he could not be “bought”, but after Kejriwal’s decision to deny Rajya Sabha tickets to party volunteers in favour of Sushil Gupta and N D Gupta, he was left numb and speechless. Kejriwal was also a vocal and bitter critic of Prime Minister’s step of demonetization that was aimed to curb and track black money.
Arun Jaitley, the present Union Finance Minister, was the Additional Solicitor General of India when Arvind Kejriwal passed out from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 1989. Jaitley is not just an experienced parliamentarian but prior was a sought-after advocate too. By suing Kejriwal in the Court of Law, Arun Jaitley ensured that the political battle between them would also be fought on the legal front. Here, Jaitley would have a considerable advantage over Arvind Kejriwal. This was not anticipated by Kejriwal when he made the unsubstantiated allegations against Arun Jaitley. In this arena, Jaitley is the master of the game and knows all the tricks of the trade that would be or could be used by Arvind Kejriwal and his team.
Arvind Kejriwal can now apologize to Arun Jaitley and declare that he was lying about Arun Jaitley or prove his charges in the Court. By his approach throughout the course of the case, it is clear that Kejriwal has not interest in seeking an expeditious trial and on the contrary, he has been looking to delay the trial.
The recent order of the Delhi High Court asking him to finish the cross examination of Arun Jaitley is a rap on his knuckles. Even Kejriwal would have now realized, especially after receiving a dose of his own medicine from Kapil Mishra, Kumar Vishwas, Mayank Gandhi and Yogendra Yadav that politics is not a reality show where he can spew any non-sense and get away with it.