Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (Express Photo/Praveen Khanna)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday alleged that the row over the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was “part of a larger political conspiracy” to dismiss the AAP government. He added that he would never hit anyone since he is not a “coward”.
Addressing a gathering of a joint council of employees’ organisations at his residence, Kejriwal said he was “pained” when these staffers had joined the IAS-cadre led agitation against the elected government going by the version of the higher-level bureaucrats.
He reached out to the employees calling them a “part of my family”. “I will be frank with you on the happenings over the last 10 days. The allegation against us is patently false. Kejriwal can be stubborn but not violent. Kejriwal is not a coward. It is part of a larger political conspiracy. An atmosphere was created so that President’s Rule could be imposed in Delhi,” the CM said.
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He told the gathering that his government had nearly finalised the “restructuring” of the DASS cadre before the August 2017 Delhi High Court verdict “took the subject of services away from us”. “And there has been no progress since then. We promised to fix anomalies in grade pay of engineers. I did that within a month. I pray to God that services come back to us,” he said.
He said the allegation that two AAP MLAs hit Prakash was a “lie” that was being peddled to discredit the AAP government.
“But we will deal with that on the political front. But what pained me the most was when you people joined them. You could have asked me once before doing that. Next time, any such thing comes to your notice, please come to me first,” he said.
“We could not have achieved anything without you. It is our duty to take care of you and your duty is to help the people of Delhi. Kehte hai jab paraya dard deta hai toh dard kam hota hai, apna deta hai toh jyada hota hai…,” the chief minister said.
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