Members of the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday protested in Delhi outside Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh’s home after he condemned the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by AAP legislators. The protestors, including AAP MLA Alka Lamba, demanded action against bureaucrats they claimed assaulted their party’s MLAs inside the Delhi secretariat.
On Tuesday, the chief secretary alleged that AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal manhandled him at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office. They are both in judicial custody, and a Delhi court will hear their bail petitions on Thursday.
After a body of Indian Administrative Services Officers protested against Prakash’s alleged assault, the home minister had said “civil servants should be allowed to work with dignity and without fear”, and that the Home Affairs Ministry had sought a report from Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on the incident.
The body had decided on Tuesday that that its officers would not meet or talk even over the phone to Kejriwal, his ministers or MLAs until the chief minister took action.
On Thursday, the IAS body said that Delhi government employees would observe five minutes’ silence outside their offices every day till steps are taken to ensure their safety and dignity, IANS reported. Delhi government bureaucrats had earlier refused to work until AAP apologised for the alleged attack on Prakash.
But AAP on Thursday alleged double standards by the Home Ministry, questioning why it had taken no action when party leader Ashish Khetan had filed a complaint claiming a group of unidentified men had assaulted him at the secretariat, News18 reported.
Meanwhile, workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party protested against the AAP outside Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s house on Thursday, demanding Kejriwal’s resignation as chief minister. They claimed Kejriwal was present at the time the two AAP MLAs allegedly assaulted the Delhi chief secretary, so he must take responsibility for the incident.
The Delhi BJP has also questioned the morality of calling Chief Secretary Prakash to the chief minister’s office at midnight on Tuesday. A medical examination of Prakash on Wednesday found swelling behind both ears and a bruise on his lower lip.
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