'Even London, Singapore jails don't give massages'

New Delhi: Union minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying he wanted to make Delhi like London and Singapore but even those cities did not provide "massage facilities" in their jails.

Thakur was referring to a purported leaked video that showed Delhi minister Satyendar Jain getting a massage in his Tihar Jail cell. Videos that purportedly showed Jain taking a massage also showed a TV inside his prison cell, and showed the minister taking visitors in his cell.

Campaigning for BJP candidates in Vasant Kunj, Palam and Madhu Vihar areas ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, Thakur said it was the first time since Independence that the prisons minister of a state was behind bars and yet Kejriwal did not remove him from his Cabinet.

Jain held multiple portfolios, including the prisons department, prior to May 31 arrest in a money laundering case.

"Kejriwal said he will make Delhi like London and Singapore, is there so much pollution in London and Singapore? Does the education minister do liquor corruption there, does the health minister get massages in jail there?" he said.

On several occasions, Kejriwal had promised to develop world-class road and transportation infrastructure in Delhi and change it like London and Singapore.

"See Delhi's Kejriwal model, health minister gets massage in jail," Thakur said.

Thakur also alleged that the Kejriwal government's "appeasement politics" had been exposed as it was paying salaries to maulvis of mosques and not priests in temples, gurudwaras and churches in Delhi.

He urged Delhi residents to vote for BJP candidates in MCD to free the city and save it from "corruption and stalled development" under Kejriwal.