Arvind Kejriwal charged Narendra Modi with being involved in corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal. (Photo: Twitter/AamAadmiParty)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Arvind Kejriwal urged people to elect educated PM
- He was addressing opposition rally in Delhi
- Opposition leaders have decided to come together nationally to oust Modi
In an all-out attack on Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that people made a Class 12-pass the prime minister of the country but they should not repeat the mistake in 2019.
The Aam Aadmi Party supremo also charged Modi with being involved in corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.
"Last time you made a Class 12-pass the prime minister of the country. Do not commit the mistake this time and find someone who is educated because a Class 12 pass (person) has not the understanding where he is putting his signs," Kejriwal said, referring to questions raised on Modi's educational qualification.
Addressing the "Tanashahi Hatao, Loktantra Bachao" rally in presence of opposition leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar and Chandrababu Naidu, Kejriwal asserted their protest-rally will uproot the Modi government.
Moving forward on a united anti-BJP front for the Lok Sabha elections, top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on February 13 agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme to oust the Modi government and to consider forging a pre-poll alliance.
"This dharna will uproot the Modi government just as it removed the then government (of Congress-led UPA) in the country after the historic anti-corruption movement gathering at Jantar Mantar on April 4, 2011," he said.
Alleging that the Modi government purchased Rafale fighter jets at an increased price, Kejriwal accused the prime minister of directly responsible for price escalation.
"Narendra Modi himself negotiated with the company of Rafale," he said, waving a purported paper from a Defence Ministry file.
He said if the truth behind the Rafale deal were to be uncovered, the prime minister will have to resign.
"Does it behove the prime minister of the country to negotiate the price of an aircraft with a company. It has now proved that Modi is involved in corruption in the Rafale deal," he charged.
Kejriwal lauded Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the way she tackled the recent issue of CBI officials bid to question Kolkata police commissioner in an under-investigation case, saying it was an attack by Modi on the elected government in West Bengal.
"The West Bengal government is an elected government. It's not a paternal right (bapauti) of Modi. If the commissioner was arrested, the message would have been conveyed across the country that one needed to fear the Modi government, not a state government," he said.
The Delhi chief minister hit out at the prime minister, accusing him of "tearing apart" Dr Ambedkar's Constitution that provides federal structure in the country.
The Modi government snatched away Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), which had registered cases against high-profile people in the country, from Delhi government, with the help of paramilitary force, charged Kejriwal.
"I want to tell the prime minister that Delhi is the capital of the country and he is not prime minister of Pakistan. Only Pakistan prime minister dreams of attacking Delhi and Congress.
"If Pakistan PM had occupied ACB building, we would show him that blood is hot in our body. But we respect you being the Prime Minister of India," he asserted.
He also accused Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of "spoiling" harmony in the country in the past five years.
Opposition meets after mega rally
A meeting, hosted by NCP president Sharad Pawar at his residence in Delhi, also saw Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal coming together for the first time, while West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu said the entire opposition needs to come together due to "democratic compulsions to save India".
Opposition leaders indicated that the parties may contest separately in some states, but there was an urgent need to work together at the national level. The BJP has been calling the attempts by opposition parties to forge an alliance a desperate bid to save themselves from the Modi government's crackdown on corruption.
After the meeting, which took place hours after opposition leaders shared a dais at an AAP protest on the day of the last sitting of the present Lok Sabha, Gandhi told reporters that opposition leaders agreed to have a common minimum programme.
"We will work together to defeat the BJP," said the Congress leader, who has taken the responsibility to circulate copies of a draft common minimum programme among the opposition leaders.
The Opposition leaders have gathered multiple times in past one month in a show of unity. Earlier in the day, they mounted a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, saying the two should be "ousted" in the coming elections as they are a "threat" to democracy and constitutional values.
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