This Article is From Apr 11, 2014

BJP would have accused Lord Ram of running away: Arvind Kejriwal

BJP would have accused Lord Ram of running away: Arvind Kejriwal

AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal during a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Friday

Amritsar: Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party, hit out at the BJP today for mocking his exit after 49 days as Delhi chief minister, by using the analogy of Hindu Lord Ram's exile.

"Lord Ram went to exile for 14 years. We all say that he made such a grand sacrifice, left power. Ram was fortunate that the BJP people were not born then. If they had, then they would have said Ram ran away. He is a bhagoda (runaway)..." Mr Kejriwal said in Amritsar, where he was campaigning for the national election.

It needs courage to give up the Chief Minister's chair, he added.

Mr Kejriwal quit as Chief Minister in February amid high drama after failing to push his anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi assembly.

The BJP slammed the AAP chief for "hiding behind metaphor."

The party's spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said, "He has misled the public with promises that he knew, even as he made them, that he wouldn't keep them. So to glorify himself or to seek a cover of 'I could have done it, but I was noble in my intention,' all this doesn't help. To seek protection by giving this kind of an example or metaphors doesn't help.

"He has only run away knowing very well that to stay in the system and cleanse it, to stay in the system and deliver, is the challenge which he never wants to face."
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