Swati Maliwal ‘exposes’ Kejriwal’s ‘political motives’ behind crackdown on Punjab farmers

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Thursday criticised the alleged political motives of her estranged party national convener Arvind Kejriwal behind the use of force against protesting farmers on the Punjab border, accusing him of adopting ‘double standards’.

Maliwal claimed the crackdown was aimed at appeasing businessmen in Ludhiana, from where Kejriwal wants his party colleague Sanjeev Arora, a sitting RS member, to win an Assembly by-election.

If the party wins this by-election, this will be a much-needed precursor for the AAP National Convener reaching Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

Maliwal wrote on social media platform X, “The purpose of the atrocities committed on the farmers late at night is not to open the highway, but to open the way for Kejriwal ji to Rajya Sabha! Kejriwal ji feels that by doing this, the businessmen of Ludhiana will be happy, he will win the election and Arora ji’s Rajya Sabha seat will be vacant.”

“When the farmers were sitting in Delhi, elections were also about to take place in Punjab. At that time, to appease the farmers, Kejriwal had called himself a sevadaar. Now, when the farmers are sitting in Punjab, Kejriwal has tried to end the agitation not through talks but through force. Why such a double standard?” asked Maliwal.

The Rajya Sabha MP, who has accused Kejriwal and his former aid Bibhav Kumar of ill-treating her at the former Delhi Chief Minister’s residence, said, “Adopting such a dictatorial path instead of dialogue is another example of Kejriwal’s anger and spirit of revenge.”

Maliwal, who had once been a close aide of Kejriwal and headed the Delhi Women’s Commission, fell apart with the AAP leader over political differences. The MP who has held several protests against Kejriwal since then has been accused by the AAP of being a BJP puppet being used to embarrass the AAP.

The RS MP’s outburst against Kejriwal comes at a time when the former Delhi Chief Minister has launched the party’s campaign for the upcoming Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll even before the declaration of the date of voting.

The bypoll was necessitated after sitting legislator Gurpreet Gogi died in an incident of accidental firing from a gun in January. The Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll is to be held before July 11.

The AAP currently has seven Rajya Sabha members from Punjab – Sandeep Pathak, Raghav Chadha, former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal, environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal, industrialist Vikramjit Singh, and Arora, who has been a member of the upper house since 2022.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa lashed out at the Bhagwant Mann-led government, accusing it of deceiving farmers by detaining their leaders after the third round of talks with the Centre failed to yield results the previous day.

In a major crackdown, after detaining several union leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher, on Wednesday evening, the Punjab Police used mild force to disperse those gathered at the Shambhu and Khanauri protest sites on the Punjab-Haryana border.

–IANS