"They raided Vijay Nair’s home twice in a month but did not find anything there either,” said Arvind Kejriwal. (Express File Photo)A day after AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair was arrested by the CBI in connection with the alleged corruption in Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy, party chief Arvind Kejriwal said Wednesday that Nair was a mere worker.
“They arrested Vijay Nair yesterday. Who is Vijay Nair? AAP ka chhota sa karyakarta hai. He handles communication for us. Earlier, he did great work in Punjab and we formed the government there. Now, he is handling the communication strategy in Gujarat. He was handling social media outreach in Gujarat. They are saying he was involved in a liquor scam in Delhi. I don’t understand how he is linked to liquor or a liquor scam. He looks at social media in Gujarat. He is just a party worker,” said Kejriwal said in a video address.
Nair, the former CEO of Mumbai-based entertainment and events management firm Only Much Louder, has been associated with the AAP since 2014 but got a bigger role in 2019 during the party’s assembly election campaign in Delhi, party sources said. He, along with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, was named in the CBI FIR in the alleged liquor scam case, along with 13 others.
“Over the past few days, he was being called for questioning every day. He was being pressured to name Manish Sisodia, and threatened with arrest if he did not name him. But he is a truthful AAP worker and refused to lie. They arrested him. Earlier, they raided Manish Sisodia’s home but did not find anything. They searched his bank locker but did not find anything, now they are trying to trap him like this. They raided Vijay Nair’s home twice in a month but did not find anything there either,” said Kejriwal.
Without naming the Centre led by the BJP, Kejriwal said the ‘government’ was not interested in solving the problems being faced by the common man. “People from across the country are suffering because of price rise and inflation, everything is expensive, there is joblessness and businesses are shutting down. At a time like this, it is the biggest job of any government to find solutions. But they don’t care. They only want to indulge in dirty politics. They are only looking for ways to finish AAP, to crush Kejriwal and AAP,” he said.
Linking Nair’s arrest with the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections, Kejriwal said, “The people of Gujarat are abusing them openly. They only think about how to crush AAP. First, they arrested Satyendar Jain (Delhi minister) in a fake case, and then they arrested MLA Amanatullah Khan in a fake case. Yesterday, they arrested Nair. Next week, they will arrest Manish Sisodia”.
“If they can arrest a small party worker like Nair, they can arrest anyone. Today I appeal to all AAP workers across the county to be ready for arrests. If Vijay Nair can be arrested, any AAP worker can be arrested. You should be ready for arrests, they can arrest you under any case, especially workers from Gujarat,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal also hit out at Congress and BJP alleging they had looted India more in 75 years than the Britishers did in two centuries. “Today is Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary. We have to take inspiration from his life. This is the second Independence struggle. Bhagat Singh fought to free the country from the British, we have to fight to free it from these looteras. We have to save them from those who roam the entire country trying to buy MLAs. They are looting the nation’s wealth and taking it abroad. In the 75 years since Independence, they have looted India more than the British did in 200 years,” he said.
“They will file false cases against you, are you ready for this? Be a part of AAP only if you are ready to go to jail, only if you are ready to sacrifice for the country like Bhagat Singh,” Kejriwal said.