‘Treated Like Terrorists’: What Punjab CM Said After Meeting Kejriwal In Tihar Jail

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP MP Sandeep Pathak met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday at Tihar jail.

Addressing the media outside the prison after the meeting, Mann alleged that the prison authorities organised the meeting in a room divided by a glass window, as though it was not between elected heads of two states, but between terrorists.

“This is the height of dictatorship as two chief ministers were introduced as terrorists,” the Punjab CM said.

The emotional Punjab chief minister said, "The glass wall was so smudged that it was difficult to see each other's face. I asked Kejriwal how he was doing. He did not talk about himself... He asked me about Punjab — how farmers are doing, has harvesting started, about AAP Mohalla Clinics, and if the people are getting free electricity timely. These were his concerns."

"Because we do politics of work, not just for the sake of it. We are patriots and we will fight like one."

Reading from the jail manual, Mann said, "The jail manual says well-behaved prisoners can be allowed to have face-to-face meetings with visitors. When Chidambaram ji was in prison, Sonia Gandhi ji was allowed to meet him one-on-one. Parkash Singh Badal was allowed to have a face-to-face meeting in a room."

"I can't figure out what kind of enmity they have with us," the Punjab chief minister added.

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Mann also said that Kejriwal has assigned him the task of campaigning in states where the party is contesting the Lok Sabha elections 2024, visiting states, and handling meetings of the INDIA alliance.

Kejriwal is in prison in connection with alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 and will be in judicial custody till April 23. The AAP has maintained that the arrest is a political vendetta aimed at crushing Kejriwal, who was emerging as a tall opposition leader in the country.