This Article is From Jul 28, 2016

PM Modi May Try To Have Me Killed, Arvind Kejriwal Claims In Video

Arvind Kejriwal in a video message attacks PM Modi, accuses centre of going after AAP lawmakers

Highlights

  • Kejriwal attack PM in a 10-minute video accusing him of targeting AAP
  • Kejriwal said he "is worried about whether the country is in safe hands"
  • He asked AAP members, volunteers to prep for unrestrained persecution
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "so frustrated that he can get me killed," Arvind Kejriwal has said in a 10-minute video in which he catalogues his government's many points of dispute with the centre.

Claiming that the PM operates in a perpetual state of rage fueled by dislike for his opponents, the Chief Minister of Delhi says he has turned insomniac because he "is worried about whether the country is in safe hands".

The 10-minute video, titled "Arvind Kejriwal's message to the common man", has been posted on social media by his Aam Aadmi Party or AAP.  Mr Kejriwal's reveal about his perceived threat to his life is made at the end.  "Things will get worse," he says, "he can do anything, have me eliminated," asking his party's supporters and volunteers to prep for unrestrained persecution.

Mr Kejriwal's speech comes as AAP has protested angrily against the lengthening list of lawmakers arrested by the Delhi Police - 11 as of this week on charges ranging from threatening to run over a woman who sought assistance against frequent power cuts to desecrating the Quran in Punjab.

Mr Kejriwal, who was elected for a second term with a colossal majority in February 2015, has been accused by critics, including the PM's party, of a recurring preoccupation with attributing his problems to Mr Modi's determination to nullify his authority.   

The 47-year-old Chief Minister, whose gonzo attacks have included tagging the PM a "psychopath and a coward", counters that Mr Modi has never recovered from being defeated by AAP in a campaign that he personally front-lined for the BJP.

AAP leaders have taken the centre to court in multiple cases, claiming that even basic powers of the Delhi government have been snatched by the centre. "So many of these verdicts go in our favour," Mr Kejriwal claimed in his video, "they expose how much wrong is being done to us."

The Chief Minister cites unnamed sources to allege that the PM is unnerved by praise of the Delhi government's accomplishments and this triggers his decisions to dispatch central agencies like the CBI and tax officials to target AAP leaders.  He also says that Mr Modi's foreign policy decisions have left India's relations with neighbours Nepal and Pakistan placed vertiginously. "All this has left me sleepless," he says, "is India safe?"

Today's video diary comes after Mr Kejriwal debuted an online address that he will make regularly to compete with the PM's frequent radio speeches. 
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