20th November 2015, some might say, has became famous in the Indian political history for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister with the support of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD. This was paradoxical to say the least, as Nitish had made a name for himself post 2005 for successfully eradicating Lalu’s ‘Jungle Raj’ after assuming power with BJP’s support.
The second reason for the date to become memorable was, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, the so-called ‘anti-corruption’ crusader, and then fodder scam accused Lalu Prasad Yadav hugging each-other at the swearing-in ceremony:
Some people considered this to be a symbol of AAP, which morphed from an anti-corruption party to compromising its core principles, with its supremo choosing to share stage and then hug a scam accused.
Since then Nitish Kumar has severed ties with Lalu and rejoined hands with the BJP, and Lalu has been convicted in three fodder scam cases. In the second case Lalu was sentenced to a total of 3.5 years in jail and in the third conviction Lalu was awarded a 5 year jail term.
Now that Lalu’s guilt has been cemented by the Nation’s courts, the BJP Delhi has used it as a pretext to attack Kejriwal. As per reports [1][2], posters undersigned by BJP Delhi spokesperson Tajinder Bagga, have emerged across Delhi, which question as to why is ‘so-called honest’ Kejriwal is silent on his ‘friend’ Lalu’s conviction:
As per Bagga, Kejriwal used to regularly attack Lalu while being part of the Anna Hazare led India against corruption campaign, but has become totally silent on Lalu’s conviction.
The Aaj Tak report has claimed that Kejriwal’s silence with regards to Lalu’s conviction has become a matter of debate. Interestingly, Kejriwal has been so mum on Lalu that when one searches for this tweets containing the phrase “Lalu”, exactly zero results come up:
These posters incidentally emerge at a time when 20 AAP MLAs have been disqualified by the Election Commission for holding office of profit. This raises the question whether the Delhi BJP has already started preparing for the crucial by-polls which might be conducted in a few months time.