Prior to choosing Rail Bhawan and other government buildings to meet his Cabinet colleagues and senior leaders of his party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chose his private WagonR car to meet them.
In fact, before the lathi charge on his supporters late on Tuesday afternoon, he spent the entire time in his car.
Even as he was discussing issues with Minister Manish Sisodia and some others in the vehicle, a large number of his supporters surrounded his car, expressing their desire to meet him. Police and volunteers instructed them to form a queue. For an hour, the chief minister patiently shook hands with everyone in the queue from inside his car. Some spoke a few words while others were happy just greeting him and taking photographs.
A few also brought him hot tea in flasks and lunch, either from their homes or packed from the market.
In the meantime, Law Minister Somnath Bharti worked from within his official Toyota Innova at the protest site itself. Another minister Rakhi Birla, meanwhile, coordinated the distribution of food and other essential items with some supporters. Having not much to do, many formed circles, sang patriotic songs and shouted slogans periodically. The crowds irked the police, using loudspeakers without permission.
Apart from the clashes between police and AAP workers, there were numerous instances where the policemen and party leaders cooperated with each other to ensure supply of food and water. While police were being accommodative by letting people in and out of barricaded areas based on their needs and letting in the supply of food, senior leaders like Gopal Rai were telling the crowd not to go too close to the barricades.
However, the very fact that the supply of food and beddings to the protesters was being allowed, contradicted the claims of Kejriwal that police were not allowing any of these items and were even not providing them toilets. Deccan Herald found many portable toilets and Delhi Jal Board water tankers deployed for the use of the protesters and policemen.
Many of Kejriwal’s supporters had been working relentlessly to ensure people had mattresses to sit on and food to eat. A small group even arrived with medicines and a doctor. It was this team that tended to those injured people who did not need hospitalisation. Before the clash with police, they were also seen performing blood pressure tests on some members.
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