First Time Hearing About Work From Jail: Rajnath Singh's Jab At Kejriwal

Chandigarh: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying he had heard about "work from home" but it is the first time that he is hearing of "work from jail".

Addressing an election rally in Punjab's Khanna, Singh said, "Here, AAP is the ruling party. You don't need to be told much about what kind of work it is doing." "There is also an AAP government in Delhi. But the AAP leader was jailed in the liquor scam," he said, referring to Kejriwal's arrest in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.

The defence minister, who was campaigning for BJP's Fatehgarh Sahib candidate Gejja Ram Valmiki, said he thinks every leader should have the moral courage to resign from their post if they face any allegation until being cleared of the charges.

In the evening, Singh addressed another rally in Bathinda in favour of Parampal Kaur, party candidate from the seat.

He launched a fierce attack on both the AAP and the Congress in his rallies.

"AAP leader Kejriwal was jailed in the liquor scam. Even after that, he says he will continue to occupy the chief minister's post. He says he will work from jail," Singh said.

"We know about work from office, I have heard about work from home but this is the first time I am hearing about work from jail," Singh said in a dig at the Delhi chief minister.

The Supreme Court granted AAP supremo Kejriwal, who is currently campaigning in Punjab, interim bail till June 1, the last day of the Lok Sabha elections, and directed him to surrender and go back to jail on June 2.

The defence minister also attacked Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on various fronts.

He alleged that mining mafia, drug trade, and shooters' gangs are active in the state. But Bhagwant Mann is busy pleasing his party's political bosses by going to "Delhi durbar" with little concern for his state, he added.

Appealing to voters to give the BJP a chance in Punjab, Singh said, "I will then see who indulges in drug trade here." Attacking Kejriwal, he said, "In every street, liquor shops were opened in Delhi during Kejriwal's tenure. And you know what the situation in Punjab related to drugs is." Singh also hit out at the Congress, saying they ruled the country for nearly six decades, but the kind of progress which nation should have made did not happen as he referred to Congress regimes from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh.

"I never criticise any PM...because I believe PM is not an individual, but an institution, therefore his public criticism should not be made.

"But who will deny this reality. The progress India should have made during those years (under Congress rule) that did not happen. Poverty did not end," he said.

The veteran BJP leader then said, "You will ask me has everything happened after Modi ji came to power." Singh said that he does not want to say that previous PMs did not do anything, but the pace of progress and development that took place during PM Modi's rule was never seen before.

A new India is being built with new thinking, he said, while pointing to rapid progress which the country has made on various fronts, including on economic front.

Singh also took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the latter's recent remarks that the system is heavily aligned against the lower castes and that he knows the system from inside as his grandmother and father were prime ministers and later he used to visit the PM's house when Manmohan Singh lived there.

"I think he kept reality of then Congress governments. The system which they made was against the poor, scheduled castes and backward classes," Singh claimed.

He again launched a scathing attack on the opposition INDIA bloc over the corruption issue and asked should the government not take action against the corrupt.

He also said they are trying to mislead by saying if "we get 400 seats, dictatorship will be imposed in the country and changes will be made in the Constitution".

More than 70 times they did job to dissolve elected governments and "they then point fingers at us", he said attacking the Congress and INDIA bloc.

They are conspiring to weaken the country, said Singh, as he attacked former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi for calling the Poonch terror attack, in which an IAF soldier was killed, a "poll stunt" meant to "make the BJP win" the Lok Sabha elections.

There was hardly any state where terror activities did not take place during the Congress' rule, the defence minister said, adding that now, barring an odd incident in Kashmir, no one dares to carry out such activity.

On the Citizenship Amendment Act, which is to grant citizenship to religiously persecuted people who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Singh said the opposition was trying to mislead on this too.

He referred to former Pakistani minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain's "praise" of Rahul Gandhi and said the Pakistani leader had recently said, "Rahul on Fire".

"They are not getting support from the Indian public, now Pakistan people are supporting them," Singh said.

About Punjab, he said this is an agrarian state and listed several initiatives and schemes for farmers' welfare. "Many things still need to be done." He acknowledged that brave sons of farmers are guarding the country's borders.

Singh said, "It is our PM's pledge to make India a developed nation by 2047. The way country is moving ahead, by 2070-2075, I am sure, it will be the world's richest country."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.)