Swami Agnivesh hits out at Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: At a time when AAP government is mired in several controversies, Swami Agnivesh, a former member of Anna Hazare's anti graft agitation team, today said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is failing to keep up the high moral standards set by himself.

"The high minarets of moral standards that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had built for the party is crumbling all around him with several allegations of unlawful activities being raised against his own party members and minister," said Agnivesh said on the sidelines of an event today.

The social activist said that the "clean" image of Kejriwal is getting soiled and "the one (Kejriwal) who used to be proactive and aggressive on various issues in the fight against corruption is now becoming defensive on these fronts."

Referring to the arrest of former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar on charges of cheating and fraud in obtaining his law degree, Agnivesh accused Kejriwal of not acting on time.

"When the allegations of faking degrees was raised for the first time against Tomar, Kejriwal should have acted against him and saved the government from the current embarassing situation.

"Ousted AAP leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had also raised their voice on the issue, but they are ignored. The authoritarian and self righteous attitude will ultimately lead to his downfall," Agnivesh said.

Stating that he had noticed this nature of Kejriwal long time ago, he said that he had kept a distance from him (Kejriwal) since 2011 when Indian anti-corruption movement was in its full swing.

Reacting to the conflict between Kejriwal-led Delhi government and the Lt Governor, Agnivesh said, "This path of confrontation will stall development of Delhi causing people to suffer."