Will resign as CM after two days, demand early polls in Delhi: Kejriwal
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said he would resign after two days and would demand early polls in Delhi while vowing not to sit in CM's chair till people give him a "certificate of honesty".
Kejriwal, who was released on bail from Tihar on Friday in the excise policy graft case, said he would hold a meeting of AAP MLAs in the next couple of days and a party leader would take over as chief minister.
"Delhi elections are due in February but I demand that elections in the national capital be held in November with Maharashtra," he said.
"I will only sit on CM's chair after people give me a certificate of honesty. Want to give 'agnipariksha' after coming out of jail."
The AAP national convener said, "I will become chief minister and Manish Sisodia deputy CM only when people say we are honest.
Alleging the BJP tried to prove him corrupt, Kejriwal said the saffron party cannot provide good schools and free electricity to people because they are corrupt. "We are honest," he asserted.
"They slap false cases against non-BJP chief ministers. If they are arrested, I urge them not to resign but run the government from jail," the Delhi chief minister said.
"I didn't resign (after arrest in excise policy case) because I respect democracy and the Constitution is supreme for me," Kejriwal said and asserted that it is only the AAP that can stand up to the BJP's "conspiracies".
Referring to him quitting the chief minister's post in 2014 over the Jan Lokpal Bill, just 49 days after assuming power, Kejriwal said, "I resigned then for my ideals. I do not have a lust for power."
Saying that the excise policy case would go on for long, the chief minister said he wanted to ask the people of Delhi whether he is honest or guilty.
He asked people to vote in his favour only if they considered him honest. "For me, the BJP is not important, people are important," he said.
"Our leaders Satyendar Jain and Amanatullah Khan are still in jail. I hope they come out soon," the chief minister told AAP workers here as he thanked God "who was with us through difficulties."
About his time in jail, Kejriwal referred to letters written by freedom fighter Bhagat Singh while in British captivity and said, "I wrote only one letter to the Lieutenant Governor from Tihar and was issued a warning."
"Our freedom fighters were allowed meetings with colleagues but my party colleague Sandeep Pathak was not allowed to meet me in jail," he said.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
