Arvind Kejriwal's speech at India Today Conclave 2013

By Dilip -
Arvind Kejriwal at India Today Conclave 2013
Q& A - Difficult for common man to survive
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/video/arvind-kejriwal-india-today-conclave-2013-inflation/1/258244.html

 Hear the full recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx5AhY8Q_GI

Kejriwal says Modi's claims of development in Gujarat are a sham
AAP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the modus operandi of BJP PM nominee and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra are similar. Speaking at the session 'Dharna, Democracy and Demographies: Making Government Work' at the 13th India Today Conclave on Friday, Kejriwal said the Modi government has been indulging in illegally acquiring land from farmers for corporate groups like Adanis. Kejriwal said farmers in Modi land were the worst victims of illegal land acquisition. "If farmers elsewhere in the country come to know their brothers' plight in Gujarat, no farmer in India will vote for him."  Listing out examples of village after village, Kejriwal tore into Modi's governance model and said that his three-day tour of Gujarat had laid bare before his eyes all development claims of Modi.

 No riots in Gujarat in 10 years. Really?
Tearing into Modi's claim that no riots have happened in Gujarat in the past decade, Kejriwal said at least 12 big riots have occurred in Gujarat ever since. The AAP leader said, "Riots do not happen in this country on their own. They are orchestrated." Kejriwal said if a single riot case is investigated properly, no other riot will ever happen.

 Mukesh Ambani running Gujarat, India
On Modi's alleged ties with Ambanis, Kejriwal said that he had made a son-in-law of Ambani family a minister in his cabinet. Listing out the failures of Modi government sector by sector, Kejriwal said, "Modi's own constituency does not have proper roads, schools and cleanliness."
Kejriwal said that the country today was not run by PM Manmohan Singh or when the government changes even Modi. He said that Mukesh Ambani was instead running the country.

 Gujarat's criminal minister
He also raised questions on the issue of corrupt ministers in the Modi government and alleged that the chief minister has a bond with Mukesh Ambani. "Why have you included Babu Bokhiria as a minister who has been convicted in a mining scam and sentenced to three years and is out on bail now?" he asked. "Whereas another minister Purshottam Solanki, who has been convicted in Rs.450 crore fisheries scam, is also a minister in your Cabinet," Kejriwal said.

 What security model? Kejriwal said his convoy was attacked three times in his three-day tour. "That speaks volume for Modi's security model." Kejriwal said Gujaratis were living under fear of Modi. He said when he met people, they were interrogated by police soon afterwards. Kejriwal said, "In Gujarat, the opposition is non-existent. Its members is threatened, coerced into submission or even killed." The former Delhi CM said, "Gujarat is run by Adanis and Ambanis and not Modi."

Am I a Congress agent? On the accusation that Kejriwal is an agent of Congress, the AAP leader said, "We exposed Robert Vadra. BJP did not despite they having the same set of papers for close to year-and-a-half. We exposed Salman Khurshid. BJP did not. We defeated Sheila Dikshit. The BJP knowingly fielded weak candidates against her for the past 15 years." Kejriwal said, "Though the UPA government has harmed this country as much in a decade as the British did in a century, we should not change one evil with another."

BJP-AAP face-off - Kejriwal said his party workers need not have gone to the BJP headquarters. He admitted that some his party members indulged in violence and apologised for their deeds. Maintaining that he was upset about this, Kejriwal said, "We do not have a fight with either the BJP or the Congress. We fight for issues and we need to be with people 24x7." 
"The violence was not needed altogether," he said.

Banning khap panchayat - On khaps, Kejriwal said, "It is not a constitutional entity. It is very much like a kitty run by women." "The problem is not khap but their wrongful decisions." The solution, he said, should be action against the decision and those who make these. "If you ban it, they will meet again under some other name," he added. 

Corruption, communalism two sides of a coin - Maintaining that corruption and communalism were two sides of the same coin, Kejriwal said, "One government indulges in scams of all sorts for five years. And then another political player orchestrates a riot to polarise votes. They do nothing and votes are evenly divided." Appealing to people to join the AAP, the former Delhi CM said, "Until a few years ago, people of this country had given up hope. After the Anna Hazare movement and the subsequent formation of AAP, that cynicism has come down." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx5AhY8Q_GI


Ground reality in Gujarat different from what Narendra Modi portrays
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal today launched a no-holds-barred attack on Narendra Modi saying the Gujarat Chief Minister had promised to construct 50,000 houses for the poor in the state but not even 50 have been constructed in 11 years. "BJP is highlighting the developmental model of Gujarat, however, the ground reality is otherwise," Mr Kejriwal said while addressing a public meeting in Naujheel town, about 70 km from Mathura. The AAP leader also attacked other BJP ruled states claiming that corruption is rampant there and promises made by them during polls are yet to be fulfilled.

"No action has been taken against mining mafia who killed IPS officer Narendra Singh in Madhya Pradesh," Mr Kejriwal said. Narendra Singh, a young IPS officer, was crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor-trolley, allegedly by a member of the mining mafia, after he tried to stop the vehicle carrying stones in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh in May 2012. Mr Kejriwal also criticised the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party and said that a change of government hardly makes any difference in Uttar Pradesh as both have become "synonymous with corruption". He slammed the Congress for price rise and corruption and attributed these to the Congress' policy of "promoting" the interests of big business houses.
http://www.ndtv.com/elections/article/election-2014/ground-reality-in-gujarat-different-from-what-narendra-modi-portrays-arvind-kejriwal-493501?pfrom=home-otherstories

Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

By Dilip -
The People’s Union for Democratic Rights on Tuesday alleged that third degree torture methods were used by the Gurgaon Criminal Investigation Agency while interrogating workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar plant who are accused of involvement in the killing of an HR manager and the violent attack at the plant on July 18. The PUDR alleged that the Gurgaon CIA investigation “did not seem” to be directed at solving the crime or probing the involvement of the arrested workers in the incidents and crimes recorded in the FIR but instead was based on their involvement in trade union activities. Grave doubts  “The use of third degree torture in police custody, and the securing of arrestees’ signatures on blank papers by the police, gives rise to grave doubts regarding the ability of such an investigation in effectively identifying or arresting those guilty. The police and the State seem keener to reassure Maruti Suzuki Ltd. and ensure that production continues,” the ...
Read more

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

By Dilip -
According to Murakami, “1Q84” is just an amplification of one of his most popular short stories,   which (in its English version) is five pages long. “Basically, it’s the same,” he told me. “A boy meets a girl. They have separated and are looking for each other. It’s a simple story. I just made it long.” One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert..." read the story: http://www.youmightfindyourself.com/post/22131227...
Read more

Albert Camus's lecture 'The Human Crisis', New York, March 1946. 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents'

By Dilip -
The morning after a great historical crisis, you feel as sad and sick as after a heavy night. But there is no aspirin for historical hangovers .. The world is no longer divided into the just or unjust, but into masters and slaves. He who is right is he who enslaves.  Albert Camus     La crise de l'homme : THE HUMAN CRISIS   (Text read by Viggo Mortensen on March 28 2016)   Ladies and Gentlemen: when I was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States of America, I felt some doubt and hesitation. I am really not old enough to give lectures, and I am more at ease with the process of thinking than I am making categorical statements... since I don't feel I have any claim on what is generally called the truth. I shared this reservation and was very politely told that my personal opinion didn't matter. What mattered was that I'd be able to offer some facts about France so that my listeners could form their own opinions. It was then suggested...
Read more

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

By Dilip -
Image
'Do you know', Napoleon once said to Fontanes, 'what astounds me most about the world?  The impotence of force to establish anything.  There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind.  In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind' Conquerors, you see, are sometimes melancholy.  They have to pay some price for so much vainglory. But what a hundred years ago was true of the sword is no longer true today of the tank. Conquerors have made progress, and the dismal silence of places without intelligence has been established for years at a time in a lacerated Europe. At the time of the hideous wars of Flanders, Dutch painters could still perhaps paint the cockerels in their farmyards. The Hundred Years War has likewise been forgotten, and yet the prayers of Silesian mystics still linger in some hearts. But today, things have changed; the painter and the monk have been drafted - we are one with the world.  The mind has lost that regal certai...
Read more

Etel Adnan - To Be In A Time Of War

By Dilip -
NB: Etel Adnan, writer, poet, artist and musician was born in 1925 and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother was a Greek from Smyrna, her father, a high ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus. This prose poem is the final chapter of her book  In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country .  Read more about her here  - DS To Be In A Time Of War To say nothing, do nothing, mark time, to bend, to straighten up, to blame oneself, to stand, to go toward the window, to change one’s mind in the process, to return to one’s chair, to stand again, to go to the bathroom, to close the door, to then open the door, to go to the kitchen, to not eat nor drink, to return to the table, to be bored, to take a few steps on the rug, to come close to the chimney, to look at it, to find it dull, to turn left until the main door, to come back to the room, to hesitate, to go on, just a bit, a trifle, to stop, to pull the right side of the curtain, then the other side, ...
Read more

After the Truth Shower

By Dilip -
Dear Readers Thank you for reading my blog for the past eleven years. (This is a link to the new one) During this time it has had nearly 1.7 million hits; and I have posted over 9500 posts covering a variety of themes. From July 11 to 19, 2022, my blog was withdrawn by the Blogger administration on account of what its machinery suspected to be 'Impersonation'. It took over a week and the efforts of several well-wishers to get it back online I thank them all for their kindness and goodwill  My blog has always been - and remains - non-commercial. I have used it for academic purposes; and to foster a culture of debate and informed commentary in civil society. Because it contains a large amount of material gathered and collated for over a decade, I cannot afford to lose its contents. I hope it will remain undisturbed now and function as an archive. However, I have decided to use a new blog on WordPress as a platform for my newest comments and posts The new blog is titled After the...
Read more

James Gilligan on Shame, Guilt and Violence

By Dilip -
Shame, Guilt, and Violence / James Gilligan During the past 35 years I have used prisons and prison mental hospitals as "laboratories" in which to investigate the causes and prevention of the various forms of violence and the relationships between these forms and to what I will call (with a nod to William James) "the varieties of moral experience." In the course of that work, I have been struck by the frequency with which I received the same answer when I asked prisoners, or mental patients, why they assaulted or even killed someone. Time after time, they would reply "because he disrespected me" or "he disrespected my visitor [or wife, mother, sister, girl-friend, daughter, etc.]." In fact, they used that phrase so often that they abbreviated it into the slang phrase, "He dis'ed me." Whenever people use a word so often that they abbreviate it, it is clearly central to their moral and emotional vocabulary. But even when they did n...
Read more