New Delhi: Clashes broke out between supporters of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the police today at central Delhi, a high-security zone that houses the parliament, various ministries and the President’s home.
Hundreds of slogan-shouting people tried to push through police barricades to join Mr Kejriwal’s protest. (AAP leader Ashutosh explains why Delhi must bear with the protests)
After spending the night sleeping on a road in the heart Delhi, Mr Kejriwal woke up to rain and chilly winds this morning but vowed to escalate his sit-in protest against a police force that he describes as “compromised.”
Mr Kejriwal, 45, warned, “I said 10 days, but it was a way of saying that the protest is indefinite. If the central government does not agree to our demands by January 26, then we will fill Rajpath (the central boulevard in the heart of central Delhi) with lakhs of people.”
A policeman was injured in the intermittent clashes, which saw scuffles between cops and protesters and stone-pelting from both sides. AAP later claimed their protest has been “infiltrated” by people from other political parties.
This morning, the Chief Minister refused to re-locate his demonstration to Jantar Mantar, the designated spot for large public gathering. ” The chief minister decides where to sit, not the home minister,” he told reporters.
Mr Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party want the control of the Delhi police to be transferred from the union home ministry to the Delhi government. He is also insistent that five policemen must be suspended immediately for failing to make arrests based on the orders of his Law Minister Somnath Bharti.
If the demonstration continues, it risks disrupting the annual Republic Day parade on Sunday when the country’s military might is displayed along the road leading to Rash