Stop being hysterical, Jaitley to Kejriwal after AAP charges him of corruption during DDCA tenure
New Delhi: Hitting back at Arvind Kejriwal over the DDCA row, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday accused him of spreading "false propaganda", saying he seems to believe in untruth and defamation and delivers a language that borders on hysteria.
Free speech is unquestionably a pre-eminent Fundamental Right, but does free speech include the right to speak only falsehood? The Delhi Chief Minister, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, seems to believe in untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria,” said Jaitley in a Facebook post.
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Jaitley slammed the AAP for trying to ‘deflect attention’ by targeting the BJP to shield the principal secretary. Jaitley also attacked West Bengal and Bihar chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar for supporting Kejriwal, saying "they need to redeem themselves" by publicly distancing from the Delhi chief minister's vocabulary.
“Finding himself (Kejriwal) acting as a shield to cover an officer under investigation, the Delhi Chief Minister has attempted to focus attention on me. 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.”
Jaitley said that he was not concerned with the Delhi cricket administration since 2013, and had been writing to various governmental bodies with regard to the city’s cricket affairs in capacity of a Member of the Parliament.
“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,” Jaitley explained in his post.
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He went on to add that investigations were carried out by the UPA government in the alleged irregularities during their regime, but not a “shred of evidence” was found against him.
“I have left cricket administration in 2013. By referring to some facts of 2014 and 2015, he (Kejriwal) can’t drag me in.”
Attacking Kejriwal for the language used by him against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of CBI searches on an officer in his secretariat, he said a state or UT by its "unacceptable conduct" can also be a threat to federalism.
"Free speech is unquestionably a pre-eminent fundamental right, but does free speech include the right to speak only falsehood? The Delhi Chief Minister, Mr Arvind Kejriwal, seems to believe in untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria," he said on his facebook blog entitled "Falsehood as free speech".
“It is clear that the search had nothing to do with either the Chief Minister or his room. An official was being searched for an alleged offence in his earlier capacities. The CBI has adequately clarified that. Notwithstanding that, an actually false propaganda is being repeated continuously. Why should the Chief Minister place himself as a shield in front of an official who is facing investigation?” he asked.
Following the full Facebook post by the Union Minister:
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AAP alleged huge financial bungling in DDCA during Arun Jaitley’s 13-year tenure as its chief, saying large amounts were siphoned off through fake companies besides other irregularities including in team selection.
Quoting from reports of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), DDCA's internal probe committee and a Delhi Government-appointed inquiry panel, AAP accused Jaitley of giving "direct and indirect" consent to "massive corruption" in the cricket body.
"The bungling had happened under direct or indirect consent of Arun Jaitley during his tenure as DDCA chief. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must ask Jaitley to resign to ensure fair probe as some of the competent investigative agencies are under Finance Ministry," said AAP Spokesperson Raghav Chadha, flanked by a number of other leaders.
Citing instances of such "frauds", he alleged an additional expenditure of Rs 90 crore was incurred in the renovation of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium against the sanctioned budget of Rs 24 crore and that fake companies were set up by DDCA office-bearers to siphon off money through round tripping.
