Kejriwal and the Limits of Being Silly

Aam Aadmi Party leaders have a penchant for hyperbole. Which is why they claim the CBI raided the office of Rajendra Kumar, principal secretary and a confidant of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, to take away files on alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). It is also why they downplay the fact that the CBI team did not take those files away. Nobody doubts that an independent audit of the DDCA is in order. But AAP’s allegations of corruption in Delhi’s cricket body, made in response to the CBI raid of 15 December, smacks of political vendetta, which ironically is exactly the charge that Kejriwal had made against the Centre.

Most of AAP’s charges are already in the public domain. “This [DDCA] scam was about siphoning off money by creating fake companies between 1999 and 2013 and one year after that,” said AAP leader Kumar Vishwas. Responding to AAP’s charges, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said, “Their strategy revolves around ‘spit and run’.” Sounds convincing?

Arvind KejriwalCBICBI raidDDCADelhi Chief Ministerprincipal secretaryRajendra Kumar