AAP Won’t Be Finished Even If I Am Hanged: Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose interim bail ends on June 1, said he felt no “tension or anxiety” over going back to Tihar Jail and that he considered incarceration a part of his “struggle” to save the country.

Mr Kejriwal, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam, was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on May 10 to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking to the news agency PTI, the Delhi Chief Minister said he read the Gita twice in Tihar jail during his one-month stay there before getting the bail, and claimed it changed his outlook.

He said what gave him the strength to tolerate his stay at Tihar was the tales of freedom fighters who spent years of incarceration without any hope and he consoled himself by thinking he would be out in a few months.

“I have no tension or anxiety. I will go back if I have to… I consider it a part of my struggle to save the country,” he said when asked about being sent back to Tihar.

Recalling his previous stay in jail, Mr Kejriwal said he read three to four books, including the Gita, the ‘Ramayana’, and books about India’s political history.

He also alleged that in Tihar, he was under round-the-clock surveillance through CCTV cameras in his cell monitored by 13 jail officials and the PMO.

“Just imagine every movement of yours being watched 24 hours. It will make life difficult. There was no moment for me to be relaxed,” he said.

He further claimed that the prison guards told him that officials asked him if he was weeping or depressed.

On electoral bonds, the AAP convenor said that if the INDIA bloc comes to power, a probe will be ordered into the “biggest scam” of the independent India.

“It’s a bundle of thousands of scams. Almost every donation the BJP received is in return for some favour. It’s quid pro quo – the donors got some tender or work. It’s also alleged that donors got bail,” he charged.

The AAP chief, whose party faced flak from the BJP which accused it of not being able to check the Khalistani elements in Punjab and receiving foreign funds, said the charges were “laughable”.

“The Prime Minister, three days before the Punjab Assembly polls in February 2022, at a rally in Abohar said that Kejriwal wants to break the country to form Khalistan and become its Prime Minister. Is it believable?” he questioned.

He said that the alleged liquor scam was like the Khalistan charge. “I laughed at all these.” He asserted that AAP will not be finished even if he was hanged.

“I say hang Kejriwal if you think the Aam Aadmi Party will be finished by hanging (me). AAP is not a party, it’s a thought. One Kejriwal dies, hundreds more will be born,” he said.

On the question of AAP being named as an accused in the excise policy scam being probed by the ED, Mr Kejriwal claimed all other opposition parties will be named as accused in different cases soon and their accounts will be frozen.

“All will have to come together to save the country. Party is not important, the country has to be saved,” he said on the survival of AAP after he is sent back to jail.

Replying to a question on AAP’s alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, he said that his party will do anything to save the country.