Ready to go to jail 100 times to save my country: Arvind Kejriwal
Jalandhar, May 29: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has to surrender on June 2 in the excise policy case at the end of his interim bail period, on Wednesday said he is proud going to jail to "save" his country.
Likening himself with freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, the AAP convener told PTI Videos here, "I am a follower of Bhagat Singh. If I have to go to jail 100 times to save the country, I will go."
The AAP convener is out on an interim bail till June 1 following an order of the Supreme Court, which has directed him to surrender on June 2. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
Kejriwal also said the BJP will get less than 200 seats while the INDIA bloc will cross 300-seat mark after general election results are declared on June 4.
During the past few days, he has been campaigning in Punjab.
Attacking the BJP-led Centre, he said, "They (BJP) say Kejriwal indulged in corruption...they don't have even one proof. People are saying if Kejriwal is corrupt, then no one is honest in this world."
"They say there has been theft of Rs 100 crore. They conducted raids at 500 places, they did not get even one paise, did that Rs 100 crore vanish in thin air?" he asked.
The Delhi CM said that in a TV interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was asked that Kejriwal is saying you don't have any proof and no recovery has been made then why he has been arrested.
"PM accepted that they don't have any proof, there is no recovery and that is because Kejriwal is an experienced thief. If PM accepts before entire nation they don't have any proof, then it means entire case is fake," he said.
Kejriwal further said that he has been arrested "because the work which Kejriwal is doing, Modi cannot do".
"I made power free for people in Punjab and Delhi. We build good hospitals, mohalla clinics, all works which we did, PM cannot do. Therefore, they want to put Kejriwal in jail," he alleged.
Against their dictatorship and "goondagardi", the AAP is raising voice, he said.
"They want to silence me, they want to break me, they want to muzzle my voice. But no force in the world can break me," the AAP chief asserted.
"I am ready to go back to jail on June 2. And I am proud that I am going to jail to save my country," Kejriwal said.
On Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent remarks that "the Bhagwant Mann government will not last long after the BJP's victory", the Delhi CM alleged that he (Shah) threatened three crore people of Punjab that the AAP government which they elected would be dismissed after June 4.
"Have you seen such 'goondagardi' before. Against this 'goondagardi', I am raising my voice, against such goondagardi I am going to jail," he said.
He said the AAP has an overwhelming majority in Punjab with 92 MLAs in the 117-member assembly.
"Will they (BJP) break our MLAs, bribe them, threaten them...what will they do?" he asked.
"I want to tell Amit Shah that Punjabis can give an odd seat with love, but now that you have threatened them, these three crore Punjabis will give their reply on June 4," he said.
On the BJP's slogan of "400 paar", Kejriwal said, "Why do they need 400 seats, government can run with 300 seats."
"We came to know that they want to end reservation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs," he alleged, referring to why the BJP is seeking 400 seats this time.
Replying to a question, the AAP chief said, "People are fed up with inflation and unemployment. They expect from the PM some solution. But when we watch TV, we find he only abuses (opposition) in his speeches."
"...People are angry that do they have to vote for them for such abuses. He (Modi) does not know about people's problems, he is living in his own world. I don't know which world he is living in," said Kejriwal.
"In his interviews, he has started saying he is a God's avatar, and not a common person and so on...," the AAP supremo said attacking Modi.
"We follow Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva, Lord Jagannath, Lord Hanuman...I want the RSS to clear their stand, does it treat Modi as God's avatar?" he asked.
Referring to the period he spent in jail before coming out on interim bail, Kejriwal said when he was in jail, he lost seven kg. "There has been unexplained weight loss, which is dangerous."
"There is high ketone level in urine. All these things need proper examination and investigation, which doctors have advised. Let's see...," he said.
Polling for all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held in the seventh and last phase of the ongoing general elections on June 1.
The AAP and the Congress, who are part of the opposition INDIA bloc, are fighting the polls in the state separately.
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Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US lifts its blockade and the war ends: officials
Cairo (AP): Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear programme would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday.
US President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the US and Israel to go to war on February 28.
With a fragile ceasefire in place, the US and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The US blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store the oil.
The strait's closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.
The closure has also had far-reaching effects throughout the world economy, raising the price of fertilizer, food and other basic goods.
The proposal would push off negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme to a later date. Trump said one of the major reasons he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
The two officials, who had knowledge of the proposal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials this weekend. The Axios news outlet first reported Iran's proposal.
It came as Iran's foreign minister visited Russia, which has long been a key backer of Tehran. It's unclear what, if any, assistance Moscow might offer now.
Strait of Hormuz remains blocked
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Iran's ability to choke off traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has proved one of its biggest strategic advantages in a war that has often boiled down to which side can take more pain.
Oil prices have risen steadily since the war began and tankers full of crude became stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely transit through the strait and reach global distribution points.
On Monday, the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at around $108 per barrel, nearly 50 per cent higher than when the war began.
Iranian foreign minister holds talks as negotiations with US stall
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Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire the US and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has largely halted fighting. But a permanent settlement remains elusive in the war that has killed thousands of people.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg on Monday morning ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” Araghchi said in a video interview posted by IRNA.
It comes as Pakistan has been seeking to revive stalled talks between Iran and the US, and negotiations had been expected in Islamabad over the weekend. Instead, Trump called off a trip by his envoys and suggested the talks could take place by phone instead.
Over the weekend, Araghchi made two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with Iran. He also spoke by phone with counterparts in Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Iran wants to persuade Oman to support a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels passing through the strait, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter.
Oman's response wasn't immediately clear.
The official, who is involved in mediation efforts, also said Iran insisted on ending the US blockade before new talks and that Pakistan-led mediators are trying to bridge significant gaps between the countries.
Trump says Iran has offered a much better proposal
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Trump told journalists Saturday that after he called off a trip by his envoys to Pakistan, Iran sent a “much better” proposal.
He did not elaborate but stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran insists its programme is peaceful, but the US wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build a bomb, should Tehran choose to pursue one.
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group resumed two days after the Iran war started. Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 US service members in the region and six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.
