Centre ‘saffronising’ police: Sisodia

As the Arvind Kejriwal government completes one year, Sisodia said the Centre has resorted to “cheap tactics” to stop it from working through the Lieutenant Governor (L-G), the police, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and by wresting control over transfers and postings.

“There has been death of a six-year-old student at a private school, but no one has been arrested so far. A teacher of a government school was brutally beaten up. Besides, there have been several cases of rape and murder, but the police have not arrested anyone,” said Sisodia.

He added that instead the police were nabbing an AAP lawmaker, who had a fight with his wife, and another party legislator, who had a quarrel with officers.

AAP’s one year saw arrest of six party MLAs in various cases, including on charges of rioting, domestic violence and forgery.

“Khaki is being saffronised so much that it has never been done in any other state before. The Delhi Police personnel have earned respect for khaki by sacrificing their lives, but the Centre is saffronising the Delhi Police,” Sisodia alleged.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the biggest challenge for the AAP government is to “tackle the attitude” of the BJP-led Central government.

“They (Centre) are taking revenge from the people of Delhi for not choosing BJP in the Assembly polls in Delhi, which is shameful. They have snatched the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) from us in order scuttle efforts to make Delhi corruption-free,” he said.

“The Centre also tried to control the transfer and postings of bureaucrats and by doing this, they don’t want to allow us to work, even on women safety. The LG is declaring our order null and void and they are threatening our officers not to follow the Delhi government’s order,” Sisodia added.

He alleged that the Centre wanted to control the Delhi Police as it feared that if the police was handed over to an elected government of Delhi, “several rackets, including those related to drugs” in the national Capital would be smashed.

He said that “since we have come to power, some people (from political parties) are having sleepless nights”.

Sisodia added that there was a prominent political outfit that did not want the “experiment” of the Aam Aadmi Party to succeed. “They know that if the AAP’s experiment succeeds, people of those states, where they are in power, will expect the same from them... they will do anything to defame and ruin us,” Sisodia said.

After the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) raid at the office of his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar in December last, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had slammed the Centre and had said that the raid was conducted to target him.

Sisodia had also claimed that the raid at Rajendra Kumar’s office was aimed at sending a message to officials that “if they worked with Kejriwal honestly, they will be troubled”.