Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was caught red-handed on Friday after he decided to broadcast Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closed-door meeting with chief ministers over the COVID-19 situation to a TV channel. When alerted about Kejriwal’s action, PM Modi publicly admonished the AAP chief for breaking the established protocol on the confidentiality of such meetings. Not expecting such a public dressing down, a visibly embarrassed Kejriwal had not option but to profusely apologise to PM Modi.
It all started with Kejriwal secretly making arrangements with a TV channel to broadcast his part of the speech LIVE from the CMs’ meet with PM Modi. In his seemingly rehearsed political speech, Kejriwal sought to lay the blame on the Centre for the severe oxygen crisis in Delhi, where scores of people are dying everyday in the absence of a decent healthcare system.
Fearing public backlash for his incompetency to deal with the second wave of the pandemic, Kejriwal appeared to be moved by a desire to use his meeting with PM Modi to drive a point that he must not be blamed for the monumental crisis unfolding in India’s national capital.
But, Modi too was determined to teach Kejriwal a lesson as he decided to give the Delhi CM a public dressing down. He interrupted Kejriwal to say, “I want to say one thing. We’ve had an established protocol. But that’s being violated. That a chief minister should LIVE telecast an in-house meeting. This is not appropriate and we should all exercise caution on that front.”
Kejriwal wasn’t expecting this public humiliation and he appeared to freeze on his chair. All he could say was that “Ok sir, I will be careful in the future.”
Realising that he had crossed a line, Kejriwal added, “Sir, I seek forgiveness if I’ve committed a mistake or there has been a fault with my behaviour.”
One who can betray PM of this nation, can betray anyone #Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/tPtMjuVSGW
— Dr. Vedika (@vishkanyaaaa) April 23, 2021
Delhi recorded more than 26,000 positive cases on Thursday with the daily number of deaths exceeding the 300-mark. Kejriwal, who has often claimed to establish a world-class health infrastructure has been exposed by the latest wave of the pandemic. He’s had to face condemnation for spending crores in his self-publicity but little to improve the health infrastructure even in the midst of the pandemic.