Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has lashed out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for granting a sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar in a 2016 sedition case filed against him by the Delhi Police. Kashyap took to Twitter to ask Kejriwal, “How much did you sell yourself for?”
Kashyap tweeted, “Mahashay @ArvindKejriwal ji.. aap ko kya kahein .. spineless toh compliment hai .. aap to ho hi nahin .. AAP to hai hi nahin .. कितने में बिके (Mr Arvind Kejriwal .. What to tell you.. (Calling you) spineless will be a compliment..You are not even that…How much did you sell yourself for?”
Mahashay @ArvindKejriwal ji.. aap ko kya kahein .. spineless toh compliment hai .. aap to ho hi nahin .. AAP to hai hi nahin .. कितने में बिके ? https://t.co/nSTfmm0H8r
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) February 28, 2020
His subsequent tweet about Kejriwal read, “I said it years ago.. he is a wannabe “PolPot”…”
I said it years ago.. he is a wannabe “PolPot”… https://t.co/VsPoUmWoiz
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) February 29, 2020
The Communist Party of India has said that the permission by the Delhi government for ‘prosecution of Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition case is a silent surrender of Kejriwal to satisfy the sadism’ of Home Minister Amit Shah. The party said that it will fight the case both ‘legally and politically.’
— Communist Party of India – CPI (@cpofindia) February 29, 2020
The Delhi government on Friday had sanctioned the prosecution of Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in the 2016 JNU sedition case, triggering a backlash from human rights activists and supporters of the Congress. While the BJP took a potshot at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stating that the AAP supremo was forced to grant sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya ‘under public pressure’.
Former Amnesty India head Aakar Patel had tweeted, “On the hard questions of right and wrong, even when there is no electoral stake, Kejriwal seems to choose wrong.”
Reacting to the Delhi government’s decision, Kanhaiya said in a series of tweets, “Thank the Delhi government for granting sanction for prosecution in the sedition case. I request the Delhi Police and government lawyers to take this case seriously. The trial should take place in a fast-track court and, instead of TV’s ‘Aap Ki Adaalat,’ the justice should be ensured in a court of law. Truth always prevails.”
The Delhi Police, which reports to the Amit Shah-led home ministry, had said that Kanhaiya and others led a procession and had supported the seditious slogans allegedly raised on the JNU campus during an event on 9 February, 2016.
Ironically, Kejriwal had then supported Kanhaiya and other JNU students named in the sedition case.