Rajnath Singh's presence at Maheish Girri hunger strike is BJP's message to Arvind Kejriwal

Rajnath Singh’s landing at Civil Lines, right in front of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house, the venue for the dharna of BJP East Delhi MP Maheish Girri to offer him a glass of juice, on Tuesday evening, to break his indefinite hunger strike is significant. It signifies three things. First, that the BJP leadership has decided to take Arvind Kejriwal head on and not let him go on unchallenged with his sporadic diatribe against them, where he particularly names Prime Minister Narendra Modi for almost everything under the sun. It is pertinent to note that when Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were all guns blazing, even using the kind of language which is generally not expected from a ruling party in the NCT of Delhi, claiming that Narendra Modi never graduated and finished his post graduation and had made a false affidavit, the BJP chose to field no less than its president Amit Shah and make him hold a specially-convened press conference to make the public degrees and markssheets of Modi public. [caption id=“attachment_2848130” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rajnath Singh’s landing at the venue for the dharna of BJP East Delhi MP Maheish Girri is significant. PTI.[/caption] It unleashed a huge debate in the media but the issue subsided in the next one or two days. The authorities of Delhi University and Gujarat University too made statements vouching for authenticity of the degrees. Notwithstanding the universities’ official statements, the BJP had decided to challenge Arvind Kejriwal politically and “expose” him and his party for making outlandish allegations against the prime minister. Second, look at the present scenario. Arvind Kejriwal was alleging that Maheish Girri was an accused in the murder of NDMC official MM Khan. The charges were serious — a murder charge against a sitting MP by the chief minister. But then Arvind Kejriwal didn’t have any evidence to corroborate his charge nor had he any means to investigate. It was open for anyone to guess how Kejriwal could’ve reached to this conclusion, without an investigation. The Delhi police had made some arrests in the case and it had so far not found anything —  that's what the reports suggest — to point fingers towards the BJP MP. Now the fact that Rajnath Singh drove 20 km from his North Bloc office or his Akbar Road office to make his presence felt at the dharna site has important bearings. Singh is not just one of the senior most leaders in the BJP, but the former party president. As home minister he is official number two in the Modi government at the centre. By offering Girri a glass of juice, saying, “you (Girri) challenged for a debate and it was on other person to accept it not to accept it. You can’t endanger your life (by continuing the fast) and thus I request you to break the fast”, Singh as home minister has made it loud and clear that the BJP stands by Girri’s innocence and rejects Kejriwal’s charge against him. The Delhi police reports to Rajnath Singh’s ministry and therefore, the home minister couldn’t have stood in solidarity with Girri without due diligence over the matter. Third, Maheish Girri, a first-time MP could be the new emerging leader in Delhi BJP, which the party was looking for long. He can match Arvind Kejriwal in both rhetoric and action. It also comes on a day when Kejriwal held his characteristic press conference, aiming guns at the prime minister, after the Anti Corruption Bureau filed a Rs 400 crore tanker scam against unnamed persons in Delhi government. Though Kejriwal has not been named and the ACB chief has only indicated that if need be the ACB could question the chief minister in a case where former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is also a prime accused. Kejriwal said “Modiji, I am not a Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi that you can scare me. I am not a Robert Vadra that you can have a setting (secret deal) with me. Modi government doesn’t file cases against Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi or Vadra but it targets me.. Modi has tried to intimidate people with raids, false cases and threats. But I am standing like a rock — I won’t bend, break or back off.” He, however, did not respond to the specific charge despite his own government’s fact finding committee report that clearly concluded that there was a tanker scam, that had taken place in the previous Sheila Dikshit government. The report was given to him by his own minister Kapil Mishra in July last year. Why didn’t he act on it? The same contractor who was accused in tanker scam is still operating now.