Arvind Kejriwal: India's most attacked politician?
- Published
There's undeniably something about Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi chief minister had ink thrown on him on Sunday during a thanksgiving rally following the "success" of his government's odd-even vehicle restriction programme that ended on 15 January.
Indian politicians sometimes do have ink, eggs and shoes thrown at them by irate protesters, but very rarely has a single politician been at the receiving end of so many attacks of this nature.
Apart from what the Indian media call "ink attacks", Mr Kejriwal has also had eggs flung at him and even been slapped at a public rally, prompting him to once tweet: "I am just thinking - why am i being repeatedly attacked? Who r the masterminds? What do they want? What do they achieve?"
Here are some of those instances:
A "thanksgiving" surprise
A weekend rally by Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party to "thank" the people of Delhi for complying with its vehicle restriction programme saw some unexpected drama when a young woman threw ink at him to allegedly protest against what she referred to as a "CNG scam".
The woman, identified as Bhavna Arora, told Indian media that more than 100,000 CNG stickers had been sold to non-CNG vehicles so that they would be exempt from the odd-even road rationing scheme.
She has since been arrested by the Delhi police and Mr Kejriwal's supporters have called the incident a conspiracy by India's ruling BJP because they were "angry" at the success of the scheme.
However, a world weary Mr Kejriwal told his supporters to let Ms Arora go.
"Leave her. She is referring to some scam... CNG scam. Take the papers from her," he said.
"Whenever something good is attempted in the country or in Delhi some forces create all sorts of hurdles. As Gopal Rai said, many forces had tried to ensure the odd-even scheme failed."
Eggs Kejriwal
An eggs-Kejriwal is actually an Indian dish comprising eggs, cheese and chilli, but is now a phrase more commonly used to describe the chief minister who has been pelted with eggs several times during his political career.
One occasion was in January 2015 when a man threw eggs and stones at him while he was addressing, external a campaign rally in Delhi. The eggs missed Mr Kejriwal. He had escaped a similar attack in another Delhi constituency a month earlier as well.
Welcome to Varanasi
In what many termed an act of hubris, Mr Kejriwal decided to stand against prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from the north Indian city of Varanasi.
During a large rally to announce his candidature, he was attacked with both ink and eggs.
First, eggs were thrown at his car outside the Kashi Vishwanath temple, while vocal supporters of Mr Modi blocked his cavalcade. Later, while Mr Kejriwal travelled towards the grounds where he was scheduled to hold his rally, ink was thrown at him.
News reports said that the ink had stained his face and clothes.
The slap
Mr Kejriwal was left with a swollen eye while campaigning in Delhi, when an auto driver who approached him with a garland leapt up and slapped him immediately after placing the garland around his neck.
The 38-year-old attacker had accused him of not fulfilling promises.
He later apologised to Mr Kejriwal.
In a tweet at the time Mr Kejriwal said: "Is violence an answer to country's problems? Let them tell me place n time. I will come there. Let them beat me as much as they want... but will that solve the problems?"
And this was not even the first time he had been roughed up.
According to the NDTV channel, he had also been "punched" during a rally in Delhi a month earlier.
- Published10 February 2015
- Published10 February 2015