Why should Arvind Kejriwal place himself as a shield in front of an official who is facing investigation, questions Union Minister Arun Jaitley in a blog. (PTI photo)
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley has denied the corruption charges in Delhi's cricket body DDCA, levelled by Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party. Mr Jaitley, who had headed the cricket body for 13 years, said it was AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's way of diverting attention from the Central Bureau of Investigation's probe into the doings of an officer close to him.
In a blog post on Facebook, Mr Jaitley made the following points:
The Delhi Chief Minister, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, seems to believe in untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria.
A few days ago, a Secretary of the Delhi Government was searched and arrested after being caught red handed for allegedly accepting a bribe... Four days later, another official close to the Chief Minister was searched for an alleged offence which related to the pre-Kejriwal period.
The Chief Minister raised two pleas. First, that it violates the federal structure of the Constitution... second, he questioned the purpose of the search and tried to divert attention by linking it to the Delhi Cricket body rather than alleged corruption of this official.
Federalism is not a one way stream. A State or a Union Territory, by its unacceptable conduct, can also be a threat to federalism. If the Union Government were to consider using against the Delhi Chief Minister the adjectives that Mr. Kejriwal used against the Prime Minister, it would be legitimate to contend that this is not in consonance with the federal spirit.
Why should the Chief Minister place himself as a shield in front of an official who is facing investigation? Why should two eminent Chief Ministers (Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar) lend themselves to support the blatant falsehood of Delhi's Chief Minister?
It is a part of propaganda technique to deflect attention when you yourselves are in the dock. Finding himself acting as a shield to cover an officer under investigation, the Delhi Chief Minister has attempted to focus attention on me.
The SFIO, under the UPA regime, investigated and could not find a shred of evidence against me. No personal allegation was ever made against me nor did I ever feel the need of contradicting it.
There are fake allegations such as escalation of cost of construction of a stadium. When work expands, cost escalations are integral. A brand new 42,000 capacity world class stadium was constructed by the EPIL, a public sector body at a total cost of around Rs.114 crores.
At the same time, the UPA Government renovated two stadiums. The Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium was renovated at a cost of over Rs.900 crores and Dhyan Chand stadium was renovated at a cost of over Rs. 600 crores.
I have felt the need for stating the above in order to counter any unsubstantiated, non-specific allegations. I have left cricket administration in 2013. By referring to some facts of 2014 and 2015, he can't drag me in.
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