AAP brought 'shame', damaged Delhi's image: Cong on MLA arrest

New Delhi, Jul 10: Condemning AAP over the arrest of its two MLAs within just five months of government formation in Delhi, Congress today charged the ruling party with bringing ignominy to the national capital and accused the Chief Minister of shielding the duo.

"This is not only a political issue. It is a matter of shame for Delhi, the city's image has been damaged. People had voted a new party with (a) lot of hopes. They won 67 seats which is unprecedented.

"The same party's government is now cheating people. People outside Delhi are ridiculing us, which is embarrassing," Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee said, a day after AAP's Kondli MLA Manoj Kumar was arrested by Delhi Police in a case of cheating and forgery.

Earlier on June 9, the then Law Minister Jitendra Singh Tomar was arrested on charges of possessing fake degrees.

Tomar had later resigned from the Cabinet and has been in judicial custody. Speaking to mediapersons here, Mukherjee slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly shielding legislators like the duo saying his "ratans" (diamonds) have turned out to be "jhoothe ratans" (fake diamonds).

"Former senior AAP leader Prashant Bhushan had warned the party about these candidates. But Kejriwal had refuted the same. But what we are seeing now is the ratan have all turned out to be jhoothe ratan," Mukherjee said.

Stating that AAP, when not in government, would bay for heads of leaders of other political parties accusing them of being "dishonest" and "corrupt", but it is shielding its men who are at fault now, she said.

Mukherjee said her party is reaching out to people against the AAP dispensation, which boasted about ethics in politics. Meanwhile, Congress expressed concerns over "improper" cleaning of drains even as rains lashed city today.

The party claimed both, AAP-led state government and civic bodies headed by BJP, lacked co-ordination between them, resulting in inconvenience to public as water-logging was reported at several places in the city.

"Until now, there used to be proper co-ordination amongst agencies involved in removal of silt from drains. However, there is no co-ordination this year. The state and Centre are so busy fighting each other that the agencies perhaps didn't find time to clean drains," Mukherjee said.

PTI