Former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Arvind Kejriwal took questions from the public on NDTV's special series 'Candidates 2014'. Mr Kejriwal spoke on Anna Hazare and the Gandhian's support to Mamata Banerjee; Narendra Modi and his party's 'vision 2014'.
Here are the highlights of the special interview:
- Why did Modi not come (for this show)?
- The main issues are corruption and inflation
- If we can ensure a corruption-free India, it will be a revolutionary change
- There is no dearth of funds in the government. What they don't have is intent...
- The people who were running the government did not have the right intentions
- If they have the right intentions, many things in this country would improve
- Arvind Kejriwal got recognition but our volunteers who are faceless, who have left their jobs for work with us, are our real strength
- There should be reservation for the socially underprivileged. But only reservation will not help. What can improve matters in one generation is education.
- I believe if one person in a family gets the benefits of reservation, some other family should get it next...
- Arvind Kejriwal commits to women's manifesto for freedom -Educate for Equality and Make Laws Count
- Contract labour and regular labour - both have problems
- To avoid benefits, regular employment has virtually been stopped in both government and private sectors
- Was shocked to see almost all people in NDMC were on contract; we are completely against contract labour for regular jobs
- Where there is need for contract labour, we will have to implement minimum wages, labour laws
- When I sat on 'dharna' I did not demand that the control for Delhi Police should be given to state government overnight
- I had taken over as CM and told the Delhi Police Commissioner that in cases where an outsider rapes a women, the police must be held accountable
- Look at the audacity of the SHO who can tell a minister that he won't make arrests
- My demand was long term - that Delhi Police should be under the state government and the short term demand was to suspend offending officers so that a message goes out
- There has to be certainty and swiftness of punishment....jitne majnu ghoomte hain sare theek ho jayenge
- There is need to start atleast 100 new courts and fast track the cases... trials should be completed in 3-4 months
- And if anything happens, people don't respond... people are afraid that they will get entangled
- If someone comes forward to help, the law should support that person and not hound him
- India's existence was a continuous progression - Article 370 is like many other laws. 13 states where we had separate accession accords. I think we need not disturb the status quo
- Prashant Bhushan's views were his own, he does not subscribe to them anymore
- Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir are integral parts of India
- Only Anna Hazare can answer why he is backing Mamata Banerjee. I don't agree with him
- I feel hurt when he says Arvind Kejriwal is hungry for power
- Anna never wrote a formal letter to us. He gave me a note with 17 points written and asked me what I thought of it
- Four of us -Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and I - met him the next day and said we endorsed all his points
- If the government makes a law that is unjust, you try to convince the government to amend that law. And though that the people are made aware of what the issue is. And then Gandhiji said its is the duty of every citizen to break the law
- Don't have a roadmap for myself or my team but I have a road map for India. And we want a corruption-free India. That is our dream and our road map
- If we had held that session in Ramlila Maidan, they would not have dared to tear the bill in front of the people