Kejriwal meets PM, complains against Delhi Police

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Delhi Police seemed to be at war with the Delhi government and vowed to make Delhi "a shining city" if he had the central government's cooperation.

Kejriwal met Modi to thrash out issues of governance which have pitted the Aam Aadmi Party government against Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung, an appointee of the central government.

"It seems Delhi Police is at war with the Delhi government," Kejriwal said. "This is harmful for democracy."

He said if the Delhi Police, which reports to Jung and not to his government, itself created problems, then the crime rate would only shoot up.

In obvious reference to Jung, he said that whenever his government took out orders, they were declared null and void.

He pointed out that Modi himself had been a chief minister in Gujarat, and demanded to know how many times he had faced this problem from the state governor even when the Congress was in power at the centre.

He said the Delhi government had controlled corruption through the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) within three months of taking power in February.

But on June 8, "a corrupt police officer" was appointed in the ACB and he had taken control of it with the help of paramilitary forces, the chief minister said.

"The prime minister should cooperate with us," Kejriwal said, saying his government would make Modi's Swachh Bharat and Digital India campaigns a success in Delhi.

"In two years, we will make Delhi a shining city" if such cooperation was available, he added.

The chief minister, whose AAP routed the BJP in the February assembly election, told Modi that "our political differences" should not come in the way of making Delhi "a shining city".

For Delhi's development, it was necessary for the Delhi and central governments to work together, he said.

Kejriwal said Modi heard him out carefully and promised to look into the issues he had raised.