Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that his Ganesh Puja would be broadcast on all TV channels, evoking angry reactions from netizens, who slammed him for wasting crores of taxpayers’ money to project his image as ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat.’
In a video message, Kejriwal said that the Ganesh Puja was instrumental in instilling the sense of patriotism and urged ‘two crores people of Delhi’ to watch his puja on TV channels.
The AAP leader, who has been facing considerable condemnation for his alleged shift in ideology towards Hindutva politics, said that singer Shankar Mahadevan and Suresh Wadekar had been hired to perform on the occasion. He said that a miracle would happen if 130 crores Indian performed prayed to Lord Ganesha.
Netizens appeared unanimous that Kejriwal’s latest theatrics was aimed at wooing the BJP voters in Uttar Pradesh.
Indirectly he is requesting to watch this.. pic.twitter.com/GDNn8j1lba
— Deva Desha Dharma (@devarajprakash2) September 10, 2021
Seems Aam aadami Party is contesting the up elections ! ???????????? pic.twitter.com/kJVW58aIXD
— D N Thakur ???????? (@dhthakur745) September 10, 2021
— Sanjay Solanke (@SolankeSanjay) September 10, 2021
Bijli kaato Kejriwal ko nahi dekhna pic.twitter.com/cWGNt0Z5yT
— Paapsee Tannu ( Tax chor ) 2.0 ???? (@tiranga__1) September 10, 2021
Hindu hriday samrat arvind kejriwal
— purushottam gupta (@J0shuaPr0ject) September 10, 2021
Monkey balancing after banning Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations on streets. ????
— Dr Smoking Skills (@Smokingskills07) September 10, 2021
This is not the first time that Kejriwal is facing condemnation for his shift in ideology from liberal to soft Hindutva.
In a shocking revelation in December last year, an RTI reply had sensationally revealed that Kejriwal spent a whopping Rs 6 crore to organise his Laxmi Puja event in November the same year. This had effectively meant that the AAP leader splashed Rs 20 lakh of taxpayers’ money for every single minute during the 30-minute event. The RTI reply by the Delhi Tourism and Transporation Corporation Limited had also said that the Laxmi Puja was the official event of the Delhi government.
Delhi had faced its worst communal pogrom, leaving more than 50 people dead, last year as Kejriwal remained quiet for the fear of alienating sympathisers of Hindutva politics.
Kejriwal had faced public shaming for defaming the Muslim community by starting a new category for the members of the Tablighi Jamaat during the first wave of the pandemic. Several high courts across India later said that it was wrong to blame Tablighi Jamaat members for the spread of the virus.
In a scathing observation, while quashing the FIRs filed against the foreign nationals associated with the Islamic organisation, the Bombay High Court had said, “A political Government tries to find the scapegoat when there is pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats.”
Kejriwal’s claims of revolutionising the health sector through mohalla clinics were exposed this year tens of thousands of people died in the second wave of the pandemic as citizens desperately looked for the liquid oxygen. The national capital made international headlines after crematoriums ran out of space for the last rites of the corona victims.
Kejriwal had to face flak for performing a vanishing act for the first few days when citizens looked up to him for relief.