Arvind Kejriwal targets Mukesh Ambani again at Rohtak rally

ROHTAK: Arvind Kejriwal launched the Lok Sabha poll campaign of his Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) from Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi, training his guns on Reliance Industries Ltd ( RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani who he said was ruling the country like English East India Company did, ably supported by both the Congress and the BJP.

The hour-long speech of Kejriwal mostly focused on RIL, India’s largest company, and was peppered with uncharitable remarks towards Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda whose ancestral house, incidentally, was only 2 km from the HUDA ground where the event took place. Hooda is taking land from poor farmers and distributing it between Ambani and Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, Kejriwal told a packed ground that resembled a sea of white with the prominent ‘I am Aam Aadmi’ caps won by party supporters.

“Hooda is a not a chief minister but a property dealer who gave public land to Reliance Industries, Robert Vadra, DLF and others,” Kejriwal said addressing the crowd that had by then spilled over to nearby roads and bridges around the venue ground.

“Mukesh Ambani is running this country. Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi are just his two masks,” Kejriwal said, adding, “You think that Modi, Rahul or Sonia Gandhi will run the country?” No, he said, to a rousing applause from the audience. “Mind it, Ambani will again run this country,”

Kejriwal said. Reverting to his favourite topic of the K-G basin gaspricing, Kejriwal said neither Modi nor Rahul had replied to his letters asking as to what price will be paid to Ambani for the gas. Taking on the BJP, he said that the saffron party is not serious over issue of black money. “I have given the bank accounts of Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani to these political parties. Today, I give it to you, so when you get a chance ask Modi whether he will take action.”

“In this country not many can dare to blame Mukesh Ambani. I have registered an FIR against him, Murli Deora and petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily,” he said. Taking a dig at media, he asked supporters to be prepared for a negative wave of campaign against AAP because Mukesh Ambani, Kejriwal alleged, owned stakes in many media houses.

Coming back to Haryana politics —the party is contesting all 10 seats in the Lok Sabha polls — Kejriwal alleged the Hooda government bought over 8,000 acres at the cost of Rs22 per acre and transferred the land to Reliance that sold it at Rs1-2 crore per acre.

Earlier at the rally, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav blamed the Congress government for corruption in land sale, recruitments and transfers. “There is corruption in everything in Haryana,” he said. “Today is the day when Haryana says no to corruption,” he said. Yadav said the AAP manifesto promises to probe corruption charges in the last 20 years. “We will introduce on-video interviews, consensus of women in a village before opening a liquor shop, adequate remuneration for crops and check on drugs.”