NEW DELHI, Jan 13:
A press conference addressed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Prashant Bhushan was today disrupted by a leader of a fringe right-wing organisation, protesting his comment on presence of Army in Jammu and Kashmir.
The man identified as Vishnu Gupta, who claimed to be the president of Hindu Sena, shouted slogans against the noted lawyer and called him a “traitor” for his recent comments relating to Army’s presence in Kashmir.
Last week, Bhushan had said that deployment of military in Jammu and Kashmir should be undertaken with the consent of people of the State. His comment was slammed by parties across the political divide. Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had also disapproved of Bhushan’s comments.
Incidentally, the AAP office in Kaushambhi was vandalised by around 30 activists of Hindu Raksha Dal last week in response to Bhushan’s statements, which the lawyer said were “twisted” by the media.
The drama today lasted for 10 minutes. In the meantime, AAP volunteers called up police, which reached the venue just before the press conference ended.
Gupta managed to escape, but only after speaking to the media. It is also believed that he was a part of the group that vandalised the AAP office.
In an unsigned statement handed over to the media, Gupta claimed that Kejriwal had invited them for a debate, but on the other hand, he pressed false charges against Pinky Choudhary, national convenor of the Hindu Raksha Dal, who along with his supporters vandalised AAP office in Kaushambhi last week.
He also also demanded that Kejriwal clear his party’s position on Kashmir and other issues.
“This shows the desperation and culture of big parties like the Congress and the BJP,” Bhushan told the reporters after the incident.
Meanwhile, after his first ‘janta darbar’ ended in a total chaos, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said there would be no such public meets and the Government will open new channels where people can report their grievances online, via post and through calls.
He, however said that as there are people who just want to meet the Chief Minster, “so I will be available once a week for two to three hours to meet the people. People need not come to us for their grievances. For that we are opening several avenues”.
Talking about Saturday’s ‘janta darbar’ where Kejriwal had to leave the venue midway as hundreds jostled with each other to register their grievances, he said, “that day a lot of people had come. We had a meeting today. Now, we are making a system through which people can report their grievances online. We will also set up a call centre”.
“And all those who cannot write to us can call on that call centre and their grievances will be noted down…. They can also send us their complaints via post and we will also set up a help box down here (Secretariat). It will start in 2-3 days,” he said.
Questioned about reports of an IB alert about threat to his life from water tanker and tender mafia, Kejriwal said that there is no threat to his life and all the security should be given to the common man.
“My life is not under threat. I do not need any security. I want to live like a common man….The job of these security agencies is to provide security to the people of the country. Security of the Chief Minister and Ministers is not that important. All the security given to the VIPs in the country should be given to the common man,” he said.
He also rejected ‘Z’ category security provided to him by Ghaziabad police saying, “I don’t need security. I have said it so many times.” (PTI)
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