Story by Raksha Bhattacharjee
Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the AAP, was heavily criticized by all sides for leading a large procession to his meditation retreat in the Hoshiarpur area of Punjab.
Following his ‘vipassana’ (meditation) journey to Hoshiarpur, Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal caused a stir in the political community. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticized him for encircling himself with a large cavalcade.
Kejriwal was heavily criticized by all parties for taking a large cavalcade after the BJP thrashed him in the Delhi assembly election. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal compared it to the protection of US President Donald Trump.
Kejriwal “moves like a maharaja,” according to BJP member Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who is currently a minister in the Delhi cabinet led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. “For Vipassana, a retreat intended for peace, Arvind Kejriwal, who earlier appeared to be an ordinary man in a WagonR, now travels in a sumptuous convoy of bulletproof Land Cruisers, more than 100 Punjab Police commandos, jammers, and ambulances like a VIP Maharaja. If he was put to the test by power, he has failed badly. Deception, hypocrisy, and VIP arrogance at its height, the AAP’s truth is out,” he said on X.
X.Sandeep Dikshit, who ran against Kejriwal for the New Delhi seat, was quoted by PTI as saying, “I have been saying for 10 years that he is greedy for power. When he used to get votes on the basis of simplicity, even then, we used to say that his simplicity was just a pretense… He has become so used to the extravagance that comes with power that he has 100 vehicles in his convoy to accompany him for a meditation retreat.” The Congress was not far behind in criticizing the AAP chief.
In Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal and his spouse Sunita Kejriwal are participating in a 10-day meditation retreat.
The meditation training at the Dhamma Dhaja Vipassana Centre started on Wednesday, and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his wife Sunita are in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. Over the next ten days, the pair will be attending the course.
Kejriwal was criticized because of the size of his cavalcade. The AAP chief was escorted by the cavalcade, which included bulletproof cars and around 100 Punjab Police officers, according to an India Today story.
Late Tuesday evening, Kejriwal and his spouse reached the Forest Rest House in Chohal, which is roughly 14 kilometers from Hoshiarpur. They then proceeded to the center in Anandgarh, which is located in the Hoshiarpur district close to Mehlanwali.
