PM should resign if he cannot protect Delhi CM: Kejriwal
New Delhi : Arvind Kejriwal on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resign if he cannot ensure the chief minister's security, days after a man flung chilli powder at the Aam Aadmi Party chief inside the Delhi secretariat.
Speaking at the party headquarters, Kejriwal claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi did much more during its three-year rule than what Modi did in 12 years as Gujarat chief minister.
"The people of Delhi are proud of their honest chief minister. I want to ask the people of the country if they feel the same about their prime minister," Kejriwal said.
He hit out the BJP-led NDA government over the alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter-jet deal, and Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi fleeing the country.
Targeting the "Gujarat model" of development, the chief minister said, "I challenge... the AAP government in Delhi did much more than he (Narendra Modi) did in Gujarat in 12 years."
Later in the Assembly, Kejriwal asked the prime minister to step down if he cannot ensure the Delhi chief minister's security.
Speaking at the one-day special session of the Assembly, which was extended by a day till Tuesday, Kejriwal alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was behind the November 20 attack on him as it was "baffled" by the "good work" done by his government.
"Narendra Modi should resign if he cannot protect Delhi's chief minister," Kejriwal said in the House, which had met to discuss the attack on him and the alleged deletion of names from the voters' list.
Referring to a phone call from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh after the incident, Kejriwal claimed, "I said either you are worthless or colluding."
Speaking on a government resolution seeking amendments in the Constitution to bring the Delhi Police under the control of the Delhi government, Kejriwal said 95 per cent policemen were good but "they are being made to do wrong things by the BJP".
"If Delhi Police comes under the elected government of Delhi, it will start working for the good of the people," he asserted.
The resolution, moved by Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain and later adopted by the Assembly with voice votes, also stated that in view of pending such amendments, necessary steps should be initiated by the Centre to devolve certain powers to the elected government so that it is in a position to have control over the Delhi Police.
Referring to the recent attack on him, Kejriwal said, "In the last three years, four attacks were made on me. These attacks could not happen if I was not the chief minister of Delhi.
"These attacks are not on me, but on the people of Delhi instead... Modi ji is taking revenge from Delhiites for voting the AAP to power in the city," the chief minister said.
Kejriwal also hit out at Lt Governor Anil Baijal for "creating hurdles" in the functioning of the AAP dispensation.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said the number of heinous crimes in the national capital had declined this year from last year and it was incorrect to call the city the "crime capital".
The reaction came hours after the Delhi Assembly adopted a government resolution claiming that the city has become the "national crime capital".
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
