Sanjay Singh writes to PM, L-G over 'harassment' of CM in Tihar Jail

→ Оригинал (без защиты от корпорастов)

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena demanding an end to the "harassment" and "round-the-clock CCTV surveillance" of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.

In the two separate letters, Mr. Singh alleged that the treatment being meted out to the AAP convenor, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in a money laundering case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, is "against the dignity of democracy".

To Mr. Modi, the Rajya Sabha MP quoted part of a speech given by former Prime Minister and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Parliament, where he had said, "It is very important to have Opposition in a democracy. Governments will come and go, political parties will be formed and disintegrated, but the country should survive, and democracy should always remain".

"If you [Mr. Modi] had accepted Atalji's views, you would not have behaved like this. If you want to defeat Kejriwalji, then defeat him in the elections. This method of killing the Opposition in a democracy is disgusting, criminal, and inhuman," Mr. Singh said in his letter, adding that while the Prime Minister may have "ideological enmity" with the Mr. Kejriwal, there was no need for "personal enmity".

Mr. Singh also alleged that the treatment being meted out to the Chief Minister was "in violation of the provisions of Article 21 [guarantee of personal life and liberty]" and was being done "under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Office and the L-G".

In his letter to the L-G, Mr. Singh urged him to not involve himself in the "petty politics" of the BJP. "You sign and approve all the policies of Kejriwalji, you see what a wonderful job the Delhi government is doing. The entire country is demanding as many schools and hospitals as there are in Delhi. This is a matter of pride. But you have put the government machinery of Delhi on the job of keeping watch on Kejriwalji," Mr. Singh wrote.