"My Fault Is I Built Schools, Provided Medical Care": Arvind Kejriwal At Delhi Rally

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is out on interim bail till June 2, launched a strong attack on the BJP and said he was sent to jail because he built schools for children in Delhi, facilitated proper medical care for people and provided uninterrupted and free electricity to all the residents in the national capital.

"I was thinking why did he (PM Modi) send me to jail? What is my fault? My fault is that I built schools. When your children were not getting properly educated, I facilitated good schools for your children. This is my fault. When anyone from your family got sick, you used to spend lakhs in private hospitals. I facilitated proper medical care for you. This is my fault," Mr Kejriwal said while holding a roadshow at Delhi's Moti Nagar area along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief also claimed that the jail authorities did not even provide him with medication for his treatment of diabetes for 15 days.

"I arranged free medicine for Delhi people but when I was in Tihar, they did not give me medication for sugar for 15 days. I have sugar. I take 52 units of insulin every day. They did not give me insulin for 15 days inside Tihar. My fault is that I facilitated electricity supply for 24 hours, free of cost," Mr Kejriwal said.

The AAP convenor also claimed that the ruling BJP wants to stop all work done by his government in the national capital by keeping him behind bars.

"I worked for you and so they sent me to jail. This is because they do not want work to be done in Delhi. Now if I go to jail again, they want to stop all work done in Delhi. BJP wants to stop your free electricity supply, make your schools worse, and stop your hospitals and mohalla clinics. This is wrong politics, dirty politics," Mr Kejriwal said.

Suggesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set a bigger target and build 5000 schools in the country, Mr Kejriwal said that putting him behind bars and working to close the schools built by him is a sign of "bad politics" and "dictatorship".

"If anyone is working well, you should let him do so. I built 500 schools, you are the country's Prime Minister, you should build 5000 schools. This will show that you are bigger than me. Instead, when I build 500 schools they put me in jail and try to stop those 500 schools. This is bad politics. This is a dictatorship. We should fight against this dictatorship," the Delhi Chief Minister said.

Mr Kejriwal claimed that the BJP has set a target of winning 400 seats along with its allies because they intend to "stop reservations".

"The BJP is asking for 400 seats. When asked why they need 400 seats, they are not saying why. They are saying they will take big steps. When we insisted, they said they would be stopping reservations in the country," the AAP chief said.

Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kejriwal said that PM Modi intends to change the Constitution and stop elections in the country.

"Just like Putin changed the Constitution in Russia and stays the President, or at times Prime Minister, after stopping elections, he (PM Modi) will also change the Constitution and stop elections in the country. Do you want democracy to be wiped off? Do you want reservations to stop?" Mr Kejriwal said.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave interim bail to the Aam Aadmi Party convenor till June 1. However, as per the terms of his bail, the Delhi Chief Minister cannot make any comment about his role in the Delhi liquor scam case.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi will vote on May 25, the sixth of the seven-phase nationwide polling.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)