NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal hit out at the Election Commission of India (ECI) calling the CEC Rajiv Kumar’s response over the Yamuna River water row “baffling”. Reiterating his “Yamuna poisoning” charges over the BJP-led Haryana government, in a letter written to EC, he dared the poll panel to take action and impose punishment against Nayab Singh Saini.
Kejriwal’s letter to poll panel
In his letter, Kejriwal raised serious allegations against Saini and demanded that a criminal case should be filed against him regarding the ‘poisonous’ Yamuna issue. Kejriwal also claimed that the water being supplied from Haryana to Delhi has high levels of ammonia.
‘Ammonia levels started increasing very sharply’
AAP national convenor alleged that the ammonia levels started increasing very sharply from 15 Jan onwards (around 3.2 ppm on 15 Jan) and reached 7 ppm a few days later.
Kejriwal alleged that Delhi CM Atishi contacted Saini to resolve the crises, but despite several attempts, the issues remained unresolved.
“The chief minister of Delhi called up the chief minister of Haryana in the last week of December and requested him to either take steps to reduce ammonia or provide additional water to dilute it. Though CM Haryana assured me that he would take the necessary steps, however, he did not. Subsequently, CM Delhi again called him several times. After a few calls, CM Haryana stopped taking CM Delhi’s calls,” as said in the letter.
‘Haryana CM orchestrated a ‘conspiracy” alleges Kejriwal
Attacking the Haryana chief minister, Kejriwal said that Saini orchestrated a ‘conspiracy’ to influence the
Delhi assembly election
.
“There was a deliberate conspiracy on the part of Haryana CM, who happens to be from BJP, to influence Delhi elections by sending highly polluted waters to Delhi. He knew very well that this would create artificial water scarcity in Delhi, whose blame would lie on the AAP government in Delhi. This would have rendered almost half of Delhi without water and would have created huge public misery for almost 10 million people of Delhi who would have gone without water,” he said in the letter.
“If no action is taken against the Haryana government and the BJP leaders involved in corrupt practices it will be amply clear to everyone that the CEC keeps the interest of the ruling party over public interest. Unfortunately, I can’t be expected to be silent on this and tow this line out of fear or expectations of favour. My only concern is the health and safety of the people of Delhi and I will fight for the protection of our democratic principles. Whatever illegal punishment you may wish to impose on me under the instruction of the BJP is a small price to pay for it, and I welcome it with open arms,” he added.
‘Rajiv Kumar’s response baffling’, says Kejriwal
Levelling up his attack, he termed the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar’s response “baffling”. “The alacrity with which CEC has acted against me when I was merely acting on an issue of very high public importance and have averted a huge public crisis in Delhi is baffling. Equally baffling is CEC’s refusal to direct Haryana to stop polluting Delhi’s waters,” the letter reads.
‘CEC chose to hound me’
“I am also shocked that the CEC did not pass any orders directing Haryana CM to stop polluting Delhi’s waters right before elections. Rather, CEC chose to hound me,” he added in a letter.
EC met Kejriwal as a “special case”
After the meeting with Kejriwal, the Commission in its reaction said that it gave a patient hearing to the AAP chief at a very short notice today and received his reply.
“The full Commission, without getting swayed by personal insinuations and offensive strategy being in play, decided to examine the reply in detail and take decision(s) on merit,” EC said.
The Yamuna River water row
Today’s meeting came in the backdrop of EC’s notice to Kejriwal asking him to provide evidence of his allegations that the Haryana government has “poisoned” the water supply to Delhi.
The Yamuna water issue has emerged as a crucial political matter ahead of the Delhi assembly election, with Kejriwal pointing fingers at the BJP-led Haryana government for deliberately contaminating the water. The ECI had requested Kejriwal to present concrete evidence supporting these allegations by 11 am today.
A day before, the Election Commission advised Kejriwal against conflating the increased ammonia levels in the Yamuna River with his allegations about deliberate poisoning and mass genocide.
The commission offered Kejriwal another chance to prove his claims, requesting specific details about the alleged poisoning, including type, quantity, nature, and detection methods used by Delhi Jal Board engineers.
Earlier on Monday, Kejriwal made serious accusations against the BJP, claiming that the BJP-governed Haryana deliberately contaminated Delhi’s water supply to cause fatalities and shift blame to AAP.
“If this water would have entered Delhi only to be mixed with the drinking water, many people would have died in Delhi. It would have caused mass genocide,” Kejriwal had alleged.
His remarks have sparked significant political controversy, drawing criticism from BJP leaders.
