New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today countered allegations of graft made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other members of the Aam Aadmi Party, saying charges of corruption under his tenure as President of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) were part of a propaganda technique to deflect attention.
“Finding himself acting as a shield to cover an officer under investigation, the Delhi Chief Minister has attempted to focus attention on me,” Jaitley said in a blog post titled ‘Falsehood as Free Speech'.
Jaitley further attacked Delhi CM and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal of believing in “untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria”.
Defending charges leveled against him by the AAP, Jaitley said that investigations carried out by the SFIO had found nothing against him. “The SFIO, under the UPA regime, investigated and could not find a shred of evidence against me,” Jaitley said.
Earlier today, BJP fielded Union HRD minister Smriti Irani to defend the senior party leader. “The BJP stands resolutely behind Arun Jaitley and publicly condemns AAP's malicious intention to deflect public attention from a corrupt official in Kejriwal's office,” said Irani.
Former cricketer Chetan Chauhan, who currently heads the DDCA, also rejected AAP's charges and issued a point-by-point rebuttal, saying they had nothing to hide. “We want complete transparency. All allegations are baseless. We have spent money like misers,” he told reporters.
In his post, Jaitley also countered Kejriwal's charge that the Centre had violated India's federal structure by ordering the CBI raid, saying a state could also be a threat to federalism by its unacceptable conduct.
“During the UPA government, the Delhi government, with no police or investigative powers, registered an FIR against two Union cabinet ministers for voluntarily implementing a decision of the cabinet. If state governments start investigating decisions of the Union cabinet there can be no greater threat to federalism,” he wrote.
“If the Union government were to consider using against the Delhi CM the adjectives that Mr. Kejriwal used against the PM, it would be legitimate to contend that this is not in consonance with the federal spirit,” Jaitley wrote, condemning West Bengal and Bihar chief ministers, Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar respectively, for backing Kejriwal.
He also rejected AAP's allegation that money allocated for a DDCA stadium's construction was siphoned off. “There are fake allegations such as escalation of cost of construction of a stadium. When work expands, cost escalations are integral.”
