By Rupesh Dutta, IANS,
New Delhi : It was around 11.30 on Monday night when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hit the sack, not in the cozy confines of his home but out on a road in the capital, under an open sky in the bone-chilling January winter.
Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues, who are demanding control over Delhi Police and action against five police personnel who they say did not cooperate with them, were stopped on way to the union home ministry office in the Central Secretariat where they wanted to agitate Monday afternoon.
Undeterred, they immediately began their sit-in on the road between the magnificent Vijay Chowk at the foot of the Raisina Hill and Rail Bhavan in the heart of Delhi, a stone’s throw from Parliament House and the union home ministry.
The entire area was cordoned off and people were not allowed to enter. The protest went on through the night and has continued for the second day Tuesday.
Minutes after the agitation began, Kejriwal, a diabetic, underwent a medical check-up. It was continued at regular intervals till the time he slept.
The 45-year-old activist-turned-politician who led his Aam Aadmi Party to a surprising victory in the Delhi assembly elections, shared his dinner with other party leaders and his six cabinet ministers.
“Kejriwal ji had fried rice, khichdi (boiled rice and lentils) and pulses, which he also shared with other leaders and volunteers,” an AAP volunteer told IANS as Kejriwal slept next to his weather-beaten car.
A three-tier security cover consisting of Delhi Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) stood guard with an ambulance on a stand-by.
A pile of seven blankets provided warmth to Kejriwal as he slept with head wrapped up in a muffler under the open sky in the biting cold. A total of 1,500 blankets were arranged by the party workers for all the protestors on the sit-in.
Around 1.15 a.m. Kejriwal woke up and asked one of the volunteers to remove some of the quilts as he wasn’t feeling comfortable under the combined weight of so many quilts and blankets. After, that he had a sound sleep, his aides said.
Not everybody was as lucky as the chief minister though, as the night temperatures fell, cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, unable to bear the chilly winds, decided to shift to the comparatively warmer confines of his official vehicle parked nearby.
For other party leaders and ministers, it was an experience that gave them an insight into how the city’s homeless hundreds struggle through every night.
“Staying out in the open in this weather, we are able to know how the homeless live,” Yogendra Yadav, a senior party leader, told IANS as he took a stroll around the venue, not “feeling sleepy.”
Many of the volunteers raised slogans all through the night to keep themselves active – and warm.
Kejriwal woke up around 5.20 a.m. and spoke to media persons.
“I am not going to back off, so what if I am the CM of Delhi, our government’s motto is to fight for the people of the state and we will fulfill our promises,” declared Kejriwal, adding that his intentions were never to “protest and waste time”.
“The central government has forced us to take this step,” he said.
When reminded that the protest will disrupt Republic Day celebrations, Kejriwal retorted: “What is the point of celebrating Republic Day if the people in the country are not happy with governance.”
“Republic Day is meaningless till the government does not take care of the people in the country,” he said.
Around 6 a.m., Kejriwal went to nearby Press Club of India to freshen up but not before stirring the gathered crowd to brace themselves for another day of protest.
Meanwhile, around 80-100 people including women queued up at the protest site to support the agitation as they stood undeterred under the rain on a chilly winter morning.
Kejriwal, seen in a relaxed mood, was greeting and shaking hands with people while sitting on the passenger seat of his vehicle at the protest site.