Amid the row over former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and poet Kumar Vishwas' claims of Arvind Kejriwal being a Khalistani supporter who would grab power in Punjab "at any cost," the latter on Friday, 18 February, asked why had he not been arrested yet.
Speaking to ANI, Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and other political parties from Punjab of joining hands against him and slammed them for reiterating Vishwas' claims without any basis.
"They say that Kejriwal has been plotting to divide the country into two parts for the past 10 years, and that I want to become the prime minister of one of the parts. This is comedy. This is laughable. How is it even possible?" he told ANI.
"This means, I am a very big terrorist. What have the security agencies been doing? Out of the past 10 years, the Congress was ruling (at the Centre) for three years. Were they sleeping? What has the Modi government been doing for the past seven years? Why have I not been arrested yet?" he added.
He further said that he might be the "sweetest terrorist," as he believed in providing education, electricity, water, and other basic facilities to the people of the country.
Kejriwal further said that the Modi government sent central agencies after him for years but found nothing. Taking a sarcastic jibe, he told ANI, "One fine day, a poet recites a poem and says that Kejriwal wants to divide the country into two parts. Thanks to the poet, he found a terrorist that all the central agencies could not."
The 'Separatist' Claims and the Aftermath
In an interview given to news agency ANI, Vishwas was heard recounting an old conversation with Kejriwal, saying, "One day, he (Kejriwal) told me he would either become CM (of Punjab) or first PM of an independent nation (Khalistan)...he wants power at any cost."
However, the video attracted the attention of the Election Commission, which, on Wednesday, restrained the media from broadcasting it, calling the comments "provocative, communally divisive, and inflammatory." The EC further said that the comments were "maliciously manufactured and circulating in collusion with disruptive elements with a view to defame Arvind Kejriwal."
However, the EC lifted the ban on Thursday, following which Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi wrote to PM Modi and urged him to look into the comments.
Channi's letter came just a day after the prime minister himself took a jibe at Kejriwal in a rally in Punjab, saying: "Some people are carrying the dream of dividing Punjab. They are ready to join hands with separatists to remain in power. Their agenda is no different than Pakistan's."
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