Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled four scheduled public rallies which he was supposed to address in West Bengal on Friday, in order to hold at least three back-to-back high-level meetings to take stock of the Covid-19 situation in worst affected states and to review the oxygen production and supply mechanism across the country. The rallies which PM Modi was supposed to address in Bengal were to be his final campaign blitzkrieg in the crucial state. Yet, he cancelled them. And upon seeing Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal trying to act smart during his meeting with chief ministers, PM Modi lashed out at the man.
As it turns out, in complete contestation of all known protocols and norms, Arvind Kejriwal and his office decided to live telecast the remarks made by him during the meeting with Prime Minister. This was a first. Never before has an in-house meeting of such high stakes between the chief minister and the Prime Minister been live telecast. The Prime Minister’s remarks are definitely telecast live, but chief ministers are simply not allowed to do so. As such, upon being informed that Kejriwal was breaking the crucial protocol, the Delhi CM faced the wrath of PM Modi.
“You have broken a very important protocol. Such private conversations are never televised. It is not proper; we should always observe decorum,” the Prime Minister said while scolding Kejriwal. Subsequently, Arvind Kejriwal apologised for his misconduct, and said, “Okay, sir. We will keep it in mind in the future.” With folded hands, he then added, “If I have committed any mistake, if I have said anything untoward, if there was anything wrong with my conduct, I apologise for it.”
When @PMOIndia clearly says it’s not ok to go live when it’s a Closed door meeting between the prime minister and state Cm’s on such imp and sensitive issue & @ArvindKejriwal says he will keep in mind as he never intended to hurt any one or go against the protocols … pic.twitter.com/5hF12R3eIT
— Aishwarya Kapoor (@aishkapoor) April 23, 2021
Resorting to damage control for the unprecedented misconduct of Arvind Kejriwal, his office issued a statement soon after, saying, “Today, the chief minister’s address was shared live because there has never been any instruction, written or verbal, from the central government that the said interaction could not be shared live. There have been multiple occasions of similar interactions where matters of public importance which had no confidential information were shared live. However, if any inconvenience was caused, we highly regret that.”
This is not the first time that Arvind Kejriwal’s conduct during meetings with the Prime Minister has come to fore. Earlier this month, when PM Modi chaired a similar meeting with chief ministers of various high caseload states, Arvind Kejriwal was seen behaving in a very casual and improper manner. His actions showed how he had no respect for the Prime Minister and the position he holds. While PM Modi was delivering his remarks, the Delhi chief minister was seen yawning, laughing, itching himself and reclining on his chair with both his hands behind his head.
Such behaviour back then was also hardly given a miss by the Prime Minister, and Indians at large. Therefore, when Kejriwal was caught red-handed yesterday breaking protocols, the Prime Minister made it a point to thrash him quite openly.