JOIN USThe Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) began its experiment with the Gandhian tactic of civil disobedience movement on Saturday to pressurise Delhi government to reduce power and water tariffs.
Arvind Kejriwal commenced an indefinite fast from a common man’s house in the low income resettlement area of Sundar Nagri.
He urged people to stop paying their bills from the house of one Santosh who is too poor to pay for water supply and who had to take a loan to make the payment.
Kejriwal believes that he can manage to evoke the sentiments of Delhiites and induce them to revolt against the “unreasonably” inflated power and water bills by refusing to pay them.
The main Opposition BJP also left no stone unturned to leverage the public anger which is set to brew against the incumbent government. Party workers led by state president Vijay Goel demonstrated outside Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s residence leading to the arrest of several leaders including Goel.
Goel and Nakul Bhardwaj, president of BJP’s Yuva Morcha were detained and taken to Tughlak Road Police Station but were released after a warning. “Chief minister can debate with me on a news channel where I can prove that power tariffs are being hiked in her connivance with the power discoms,” said Goel.
Accompanied by Prashant Bhushan and Manish Sisodia, Kejriwal first paid respect to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat and to three martyrs, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, in whose remembrance Martyrs’ Day is commemorated on March 23. The rally then moved to Sundar Nagri, where hundreds of volunteers greeted them.
Kejriwal stressed that he was sitting on hunger strike to bring the people of Delhi together in their protest against a common cause.
“My aim is to make people come together in a civil disobedience movement to put an end to the unfair, wrongful electricity and water charges. These inflated bills are due to Sheila Dikshit’s corrupt regime which has allowed the corporates to charge excessively. Refusing to pay bills is not anarchy, it is our right to stand up against abusive and unfair laws and Gandhiji taught us to break such laws,” said Kejriwal.