NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal resigned on Friday after losing Congress party’s support over a key anti-corruption bill.
He asked Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung to dissolve the house and proposed fresh elections to the Delhi assembly where he ruled for 49 days, each day packed with activism against entrenched corruption.
Mr Kejriwal had feared that the Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party would not support the Jan Lokpal Bill Friends to set up an ombudsman. Indeed, both parties joined hands to defeat his move.
“These Congressees had given in writing that they would support the Jan Lokpal Bill. But today in Vidhan Sabha, when we tried to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Assembly, the Congress and the BJP got together.
“This has never happened in the history of India. But they got together.
Behind our backs, behind the curtains, they are looting the country. In the last two days, their true face has emerged. They together ensured that the Jan Lokpal Bill was not even tabled.”
In what was one the of the most combative speeches by an Indian leader in recent times, Mr Kejriwal named big names from the political and business communities who he planned to target.
“Friends, three days ago, we filed an FIR against Mukesh Ambani. Mukesh Ambani is the person who runs this country’s government. Mukesh Ambani has said the Congress is his shop, that he can purchase what he wants from the Congress. For 10 years, the (ruling United Progressive Alliance) UPA has been run by Mukesh Ambani. And over the past year, Mukesh Ambani has backed Modiji also,” Mr Kejriwal said, bringing in his crosshairs Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
“Where does Modiji get so much money from? He roams around in helicopters, where does the money for those big rallies come from? Mukesh Ambani is behind it,” he said, naming India’s most influential tycoon.
“Friends, as soon as we raised our voice against Mukesh Ambani, the Congress and BJP got together. They didn’t let the Jan Lokpal Bill be presented. They felt Kejriwal has only a minor anti-corruption bureau now but has managed to cause such a nuisance. If the Jan Lokpal comes into being, then more than half of these people will go to jail. That is why these two parties caused the bill to collapse.
“For now we have exposed Mukesh Ambani and (Oil Minister) Veerappa Moily. Maybe tomorrow it will be (Agriculture Minister) Sharad Pawar’s turn. Maybe (senior minister) Kamal Nath’s turn will come. So at any cost, they had to do this.”
Uproarious scenes were earlier witnessed in the House on the issue of introduction of the bill with BJP and Congress forcing the Speaker to read out the Lt Governor Najeeb Jung’s advice to the assembly against tabling the measure since it was not in accordance with procedures laid down under the law.
After an adjournment with opposition notably BJP leader Harshavardhan and Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely demanding voting on the Lt Governor’s advice and government opposing it, Mr Kejriwal dramatically rose to table the Jan Lokpal Bill.This provoked the opposition which contended that the government had no right to introduce a bill against Lt Governor’s advice and such step would be “unconstitutional.”
