New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hand over Delhi Police and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to the AAP government, citing a survey that said the city police were “most corrupt”.
Kejriwal vowed to “set things right in one year” if this was done.
“Modiji, do not be stubborn. Work with us and hand over (the) ACB and Delhi Police to us. We will set things right in one year,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader tweeted.
Kejriwal said the survey by the CMS-India Corruption Study (CMS-ICS) had come up with “shocking findings” that Delhi Police — which reports to the union home ministry and Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung — was “most corrupt”.
He said the findings were a scathing attack on Modi’s “capabilities and intentions”.
Kejriwal, who became Delhi’s chief minister in February, also quoted the survey as saying that corruption in the national capital had reduced under the AAP government.
“It proves (the) AAP government’s ‘neeyat’ (intention) and administration capability.”
Elsewhere in Delhi, AAP leader Dilip Pandey quoted the survey as saying that Delhi Police was “among the top corrupt agencies and the biggest bribe seeker”.
And posing a question to Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi, Pandey demanded to know: “What is Bassi’s reaction on these findings?”
Pandey said Delhi Police was working like a front organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition in Delhi, “and Bassi is becoming the BJP’s spokesperson.
“As a commissioner Bassi has some obligatory functions which he has failed to perform as he always speaks like a politician against the elected government in Delhi.”
Another AAP leader, Raghav Chaddha, said the law and order situation in Delhi had deteriorated a lot.
“The survey too reveals that people do not feel safe in Delhi. Modi should hand over the control of Delhi Police to us for one year, and we will streamline things.”
It was the second straight day that Kejriwal has publicly demanded control over Delhi Police, which does not report to his government.
The AAP and the central governments have been on a collision course for months over issues related to jurisdiction. Kejriwal and the AAP have targeted Delhi Police on numerous occasions.