“Is court harassing Sisodia mentally by denying bail”: BJP leader slams AAP for playing “victim card”

Shehzad Poonawalla, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, claimed on Sunday that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is playing the victim card in connection with Manish Sisodia’s arrest and asked if the court is “harassing” the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister by not granting him relief.

Poonawalla accused the AAP of transforming from a party that arose from the ‘India against corruption’ movement to one that protects and celebrates corruption.

“This is the complete transformation of a political party that started its journey as India against corruption. Today they are doing celebration and protection of corruption they are looking at the action against corruption as mental harassment. Is the court also harassing mentally Sisodia by not giving Sisodia or Satyendar Jain relief? They are playing the victim card to safeguard themselves from the allegations of corruption. The AAP should answer the questions related to the Excise policy case,” the BJP leader said while speaking to ANI.

“Those who are responsible for the harassment of the people of Delhi by indulging in such corruption today instead of answering the questions on Sharab Ghotala, on telling us why the Sharab Ghotala was done and how such favours were given, they play the constant victimhood guide people of Delhi have rejected this card,” he added.

The remarks of the BJP leader came after Arvind Kejriwal and eight other leaders from different political parties wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with Sisodia’s arrest.The leaders alleged that the timings of the lodging of cases or arrests of the Opposition leaders “coincided with elections” which makes it clear that the action taken was “politically motivated”.

“We hope you would agree that India is still a democratic country. The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an autocracy,” the leaders wrote.

Sudhanshu Trivedi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said on Sunday that the Aam Aadmi Party considers “corruption as their birthright,” while also seeing it as its “right” to avoid investigations into corruption charges.

Calling the action against Sisodia, who was arrested on February 26 by the CBI, a “long witch-hunt”, the letter alleged that the allegations levelled in connection with the excise policy are a “smack of a political conspiracy”.

They claimed that Sisodia’s arrest has “enraged” people across the country and alleged that his arrest will “confirm what the world was only suspecting” that India’s democratic values were “threatened” under the BJP rule.