October 22, 2012
NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday challenged PM Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to a public debate and said India Against Corruption would respond to questions raised by party general secretary Digvijay Singh only after the leadership came clean on charges against Robert Vadra and corruption.
October 22, 2012
NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday challenged PM Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to a public debate and said India Against Corruption would respond to questions raised by party general secretary Digvijay Singh only after the leadership came clean on charges against Robert Vadra and corruption.
Arvind Kejriwal said India Against Corruption would respond to questions raised by party general secretary Digvijay Singh only after the leadership came clean on charges against Robert Vadra and corruption.
This came in response to Digvijay Singh's questions to Kejriwal on funding of his NGO and other issues.
Earlier in the day, India Against Corruption (IAC) activists clashed with police who used water canons to disperse them while they trying to barge into Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda's residence in Delhi.
Condemning the police action, Kejriwal said his supporters from Haryana were on a peaceful demonstration to protest against the efforts to save Vadra, who they alleged was aided by Hooda in favouring realty major DLF.
"We had put some questions to Robert Vadra and the PM. Let them answer first. Then, we will answer all questions from Digvijay Singh. I request Singh to encourage Mrs Gandhi, PM or Rahul Gandhi to come for a public debate. Let's question each other and let public question us on personal and public issues. Is Digvijay Singh ready? If he cannot convince his party bosses or the PM, then people would think he is doing all this for cheap publicity and to divert attention," Kejriwal said.
When asked about Singh's remarks that there was evidence against the kin of BJP leaders A B Vajpayee and L K Advani of alleged corruption but Congress would never use it to embarrass them, Kejriwal said his group has been talking about each party protecting the other's interest.
"They are not bringing these issues out not on moral grounds but on corrupt grounds. I congratulate Singh for confessing this. He has evidence of corruption (against senior BJP leaders' kin)… BJP has evidence against Vadra and Singh. But both have an understanding," he said.
Meanwhile, protesters, most of them from the Haryana wing of IAC, claimed that scores of activists were injured in the police action.
The protesters breached the barricade and marched towards Hooda's residence when they were stopped by police. However, the activists insisted on marching ahead and they reached close to the residence.
Kejriwal got three-four protesters who were injured in the police action from Ram Manohar Lohia hospital to address a press conference in his office in Kaushambi along with him.
He made the injured activists show the wounds they sustained in the action. "Congress and the government are now trying to save Vadra. The chief minister has transferred the officer who ordered a probe into the incident. They are telling us corruption will go on and we will have to suffer. Our supporters had gone there to seek some answers from Hooda. But they were lathi charged," he said.
Courtesy: TOI
