Twitter becomes Kejriwal's new platform to wage war on graft

NEW DELHI: While he may have pulled out his crusaders cape, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has once again gathered his anti-graft ammo: this time though, he is firing his salvos not from the heart of Delhi, but on Twitter.

The Aam Aadmi Party national convenor, who entered politics riding on a popular anti-corruption wave which first gathered momentum at India Gate, has been particularly vocal on the micro-blogging site about the recent mega-crore-rupee scam, involving businessman Nirav Modi and the Punjab National Bank.

Tweet after tweet, in the past few days, Kejriwal has taken on the BJP-ruled Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the PNB scam.

Of the nearly 35 tweets by the former Indian Revenue Service officer posted last week, 24 were about the scam.

Most tweets castigated the Centre for the fraud and the jeweller's flight from India, while some referred to liquor baron Vijay Mallya – who too fled the country during the BJP regime.

"BJP govt shud give specific timelines by when will they bring Vijay Mallya and Neerav Modi back to India. By when will the money be recovered from them?" he tweeted on February 16.

Most of his tweets and re-tweets -- from February 15-17 -- targeted the Centre, but very few directly referred to the Prime Minister, something Kejriwal has avoided doing since AAP's poor electoral performances last year.

His other tweets were mostly on the achievements of the Delhi government.

However, for a politician whose main plank has been his anti-graft battle, Kejriwal's tweets do not surprise his colleagues.

"Our party originated from an andolan which was based on an anti-corruption movement," said Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP chief spokesperson, Delhi unit.