Workers of the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday organised protests against Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam that allegedly happened under its former president and present finance minister Arun Jaitley.
The AAP also announced that it would organise a massive ‘Jan Sabha’ on 10 January at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to raise the issue of DDCA corruption.
The protests were organised in more than 275 districts and 17 state capitals. AAP volunteers from across the country set up symbolic stalls to ‘rent out’ their laptops, printers and pooja thalis to the DDCA.
“Investigations into the DDCA scam have revealed loot of public money under finance minister Arun Jaitley and his team. It’s been found that crores of rupees were paid to shell companies floated using fake addresses and fake identities,” said AAP in a statement on Saturday.
At a recent press conference, wikileaks4india.com, in the presence of Kirti Azad, who has been the leading crusader against DDCA corruption, had disclosed the DDCA had hired these three items — laptops, printers and pooja thalis – at exorbitant prices, implying a scam.
“This money was round-tripped to the DDCA officials under Mr Jaitley. The investigations have also revealed that companies and vendors were paid Rs 16,900 per day for taking laptops on rent. Rs 3,000 were paid as daily rent for printers and pooja thalis were taken on rent for up to Rs 5000 per day,” the AAP statement said.
“AAP volunteers set up stalls on Jaitley’s model of business and offered laptops, printers and pooja thalis on ‘rent’. Volunteers also took out protest march saying they also call Arun Jaitley corrupt and dared Jaitley to file defamation cases against them,” it said.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Party leaders Ashutosh, Dilip Pandey and Saurabh Bhardwaj had recently said that the DDCA scam had exposed BJP’s top leader’s involvement in corruption.
“It’s a glaring example of how BJP leader Arun Jaitley misused his position to facilitate a scam. It’s shocking that a person who presided over systematic loot of public money at the cost of game of cricket for more than a decade, is country’s finance minister today,” the AAP statement said.
Party’s national spokesperson Ashutosh said that the BJP had given a new definition to probity in public life.
Kirti Azad, who waged a consistent war against corruption in the DDCA for nine long years, was first ignored, then humiliated and finally suspended from the party, it said.
“It seems corruption is the core value of BJP’s ideology, because people attacking corruption are being suspended from the BJP in the name of anti-party activity. The way BJP is saving its ‘Kalmadi’, people of this country are clear that BJP and Congress are two facets of the same coin,” Ashutosh claimed.
Convenor of party’s Delhi unit, Dilip Pandey said, “AAP’s country-wide protest has received great response. Arun Jaitley’s DDCA scam has cheated the common man. The AAP has decided to organise a massive ‘Jan Sabha’ on 10 January at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on the issue of DDCA scam and BJP’s decision to save the culprit.”
Pandey added, “The party will reach out to the common man and expose BJP’s double standards on the issue of corruption.”
Delhi state Secretary Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “The Delhi unit of the AAP would organise the biggest ever protest in the Capital on the issue and the Jan Sabha on Arun Jaitley’s corruption in the DDCA will be historic. We sincerely hope that Prime Minister Modi will understand the public sentiment against corruption and sack Mr Jaitley from his cabinet to facilitate a free and fair probe.”