Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal, who has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi liquor policy scam on 21st December, is likely to skip the agency’s summons, as per AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. On Tuesday (19th December), AAP leader Chadha said that Kejriwal is planning to go for a 10-day Vipassana meditation session from Tuesday.
As per reports, Arvind Kejriwal will be attending the Vipassana session at an undisclosed location from 19th December to 30th December. It is still uncertain whether Kejriwal will attend the fourth meeting of the opposition bloc I.N.D.I. Alliance which is the first gathering of the bloc since Congress defeat in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
Regarding the ED summons to AAP Supremo, Chadha said that the Delhi Chief Minister’s Vipassana meditation camp had been scheduled in advance and legal advice was being taken from lawyers. He added that a response would be given to the ED accordingly.
Chadha claimed that the BJP is “afraid” of Arvind Kejriwal and accused it of trying to “weaken” him. He said, “If today, Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, and Sanjay Singh join BJP, they will welcome them with drums and get the cases closed.”
Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, both AAP leaders, were arrested in connection with the same scam by central probe agencies. Satyendar Jain is currently on interim bail until January 8, 2024, as he faces an investigation in a money laundering case by the ED.
It is important to note that this would be the second time in a row that AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal would skip deposing before the Enforcement Directorate. Last month, the ED had asked him to appear before the agency on 2nd November, but he skipped the summons citing his busy schedule as an election campaigner. He claimed that he is a star campaigner with state elections coming up and therefore, he has other commitments which would not allow him to attend the summons. He added that the summons was “motivated and issued for extraneous considerations” and asked ED to withdraw it.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had questioned him in connection with the Delhi liquor case in April this year.
Vipassana Sessions after Election defeats
According to officials, Arvind Kejriwal goes for a 10-day Vipassana course every year as he has been practicing Vipassana sessions for a long time. He has been to several places, including Dharamkot, Nagpur, Jaipur, and Bengaluru in the past.
As per an earlier report, AAP leaders stated that Kejriwal had completed over 35 sessions of the 10-day meditation course in the last ten years or so.
The announcement for this year’s Vipassana sessions comes at a time when the party faced heavy defeat in the recently concluded assembly elections. AAP lost deposit in 201 out of 204 seats and scored less than NOTA in all 3 states where it contested elections. Additionally, AAP and its national convener are currently facing heat in the Delhi excise scam case.
Previously, Kejriwal joined the Vipassana session after it performed poorly in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. The party had lost all seven seats in Delhi and Kejriwal personally lost on the Varanasi seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As per reports, he attended a 10-day course in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh in August.
In 2016, he underwent Vipassana sessions in Nagpur, and the following year, he visited Igatpuri in Maharashtra and Dharamkot in Himachal Pradesh for the ancient meditation technique. However, media reports claim that he tries to attend a Vipassana session before or after every major election the party contests.
