New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) AAP National Convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday hit out at the Delhi Police and the BJP for allegedly foiling his party’s plans to screen a documentary for media persons on the alleged conspiracy behind jailing of party leaders in the excise policy case.
The police clarified that they followed the rules and stopped the screening of the film ‘Unbreakable’ at an auditorium at ITO in Central Delhi as no permission had been taken by the AAP from the election office despite the Modal Code of Conduct being in force.
Addressing mediapersons, Kejriwal said, “The film was not political and there were no party flags at the venue, yet the police did not allow its private screening on the ground that no permission had been taken for it.”
Alleging high-handedness of the Central government-controlled Delhi Police and suspecting the BJP’s role behind the ban on the film, Kejriwal said, “The BJP is not allowing the film’s screening as it is afraid of being exposed. The film shows the BJP’s conspiracy and unconstitutional acts of sending AAP leaders to jail.”
Asked about the next step, Kejriwal said the AAP is exploring its options and, in any case, no one can stop a film from coming into public domain, a veiled hint at its circulation on social media.
The ruling party had made arrangements for the film’s screening at Pyarelal Bhawan at noon. Sources said the documentary highlights the resilience of the AAP and how it functioned when Kejriwal, along with other leaders, was jailed in money laundering cases before being released later.
Earlier in a post on social media platform X, Kejriwal said, “A film has been made on Aam Aadmi Party. Today, this film was to be shown to journalists but the BJP prevented the screening of this film by deploying a huge police force at the venue. The BJP is very scared of this film.”
“Why? Why does BJP want to stop this film? What is there in this film that BJP is scared of? This film exposes all the secrets behind the scenes when AAP leaders were wrongly arrested. It exposes the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the BJP government,” Kejriwal said.
Delhi Police later clarified that once the MCC kicks in political parties need to apply for permission for such events through a single window system at the District Election Officer’s (DEO) office, adding that the police can neither grant nor reject such permission at this time.
Kejriwal disagreed with the police stand. “A film was made on PM Modi by Vivek Agnihotri and it was screened in cinema halls without any permission from the Election Commission,” he said.
The former chief minister also announced that the AAP on coming to power after the February 5 election will ensure that the benefits of free 20,000 litre monthly water and free 200 units monthly power are extended to tenants also.
“Most of the tenants in Delhi are poor people from Purvanchal. In some buildings, there are up to 100 tenants. During the current government’s tenure there were some hurdles in extending free water and power facilities to tenants, but we will remove the irritants and implement the scheme this time.” Kejriwal said.
–IANS
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