Arvind Kejriwal to Narendra Modi on ‘AK-49’ jibe: Is it right to use such foul language?

NEW DELHI VARANASI: Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal’s constant sniping at Narendra Modi finally hit bull’s eye, successfully drawing the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate into a war of words and heralding what promises to be a rambunctious season in the electoral battleground of Varanasi in the weeks ahead.

After ignoring Kejriwal for months, often in the face of withering attacks, Modi on Wednesday hit out at the AAP leader, derisively labeling him AK-49 and conflating him wiith Pakistan, while his Gujarat government issued a statement seeking to rebut the attacks by the former Delhi chief minister on the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and his record in Gujarat.

Much like his term ‘shehzada’ for Rahul Gandhi, Modi in his characteristic style called Kejriwal AK-49 at a rally in Jammu & Kashmir and repeated the attack at another rally in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh. The moniker contains the initials of the AAP leader’s name and the number refers to the number of days his government in Delhi lasted.

At a rally in Jammu, Modi said, “Three AKs have emerged as a unique strength for Pakistan. One is AK-47, which has been used to cause bloodshed in Kashmir. The second is AK Antony, who informs Parliament that people wearing the dress of Pak Army beheaded our soldiers while our Army says Pakistanis had come. Who do you want to benefit with your statement?”

Kejriwal was targeted for the Indian map on his party’s website, which a few weeks ago showed parts of J&K to be in Pakistan. “Third AK is AK-49, who has just given birth to a new party. The map on his party’s website has shown Kashmir in Pakistan. A senior member of his party is shouting himself hoarse demanding plebiscite in Kashmir. Pakistan is dancing over their statements. These agents of Pakistan, enemies of India, you are speaking the language of Pakistan,” he said.

Kejriwal responded to this frontal attack by calling Modi’s language unbecoming of a PM aspirant and repeated his allegations of crony capitalism and Modi’s links with certain industrialists. “He (Modi) will not respond on gas prices and false claims of Gujarat development. Why? He refuses to talk about farmer suicides in Gujarat… on his compulsions to keep corrupt people like Babubhai Bokharia and Purushottam Solanki in his Cabinet,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.

Accusing Modi of evading issues and instead “bad-mouthing” opponents, Kejriwal said: “He refuses to respond on his compulsions to give tickets to corrupt people like Yeddyurappa, Sriramulu and Ramvilas Paswan…He refuses to respond on his compulsions to give tickets to Muzaffarnagar riot accused. Why?”

The spat between the two seemed to have a positive impact on daily donations to AAP, which crossed the Rs 1-crore mark on Wednesday. The fledgling party later cheekily thanked for Modi for the surge in collections. At his maiden rally in Varanasi on Tuesday in which he announced his intention to contest against Modi, Kejriwal had slammed the Gujarat government for presiding over farmer suicides, forcible land acquisition, closure of small-scale industrial units and supporting foreign direct inve 

The Gujarat government hit back at those claims, insisting that only one farmer had committed suicide over crop losses and that 95% of small-scale units in the state were doing well. It also said there have been no cases of forcible land acquisition and that BJP was opposed to FDI in retail. But Kejriwal remained dissatisfied.

“I want to hear answers from Modiji directly. Why is he mum on my questions? How is he any different from Manmohan Singh?” he asked at a press conference in Varanasi. Speaking on the rebuttal of his gas pricing claims, Kejriwal accused the Gujarat government of lying.

““The press release makes a vague reference to BJP’s stand in a standing committee report. But I have a letter written by GSPC (a Gujarat government-run company) to the central government asking for gas prices to be increased from $8 per unit to $16,” he said. He released that letter to the media. Later in the day, Kejriwal even offered some “advice” to Modi that he would lose Varanasi and hence should “concentrate” on Vadodara.