Arvind Kejriwal targets Pranab Mukherjee, Narendra Modi over corruption

New Delhi: Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Friday called Pranab Mukherjee "tainted" and said it was unfortunate that he was going to be the next President of the country. Kejriwal also targeted Narendra Modi saying he was protecting corrupt ministers.

"Why is Modi protecting corrupt ministers like Purshottam Solanki. There is no proof that Modi is corrupt but protecting corrupt colleagues is wrong," the RTI activist said in Ahmedabad. Kejriwal also said "there is no provision in Gujarat to investigate the corruption charges against the leaders in Gujarat".

Attacking Mukherjee he said, "It is very sad that a person against whom not one but four serious charges of corruption were levelled is likely to be the next President of our country." He also denied reports that Mukherjee was named among the 15 "corrupt" ministers only because he became the UPA's Presidential candidate. "We announced the list on May 26 and at that time Pranab Mukherjee's name was not decided at all," he said, addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad.

Arvind Kejriwal said it is unfortunate that Pranab Mukherjee is likely to be the next President of the country.

"There are allegations against our Prime Minster, we had submitted a list of corrupt Ministers in the Cabinet, 162 MPs from Lok Sabha and 39 from Rajya Sabha are corrupt, and now we will get a tainted President," he said.

Talking about the list of allegedly corrupt ministers which Team Anna had put out in May, Kejriwal said, "When we submitted the list, Congress President rejected it, terming it as baseless allegations. And Prime Minister had also rejected our demand. So once Pranab Mukherjee becomes the President, there won't be any inquiry against him.

"We have decided that if the PM does not accept our demand of SIT (to probe corruption allegations against the Ministers), we will start a nation-wide agitation from July 25. Myself, Manish Sisodiya and Gopal Roy will sit on a fast under Anna Hazare's guidance and lakhs of people across the nation will come out on the street," he said.

Kejriwal is in Ahmedabad to support an agitation against allotment of community grazing land at Lavad village in Gandhinagar District for the Gujarat government's proposed Raksha Shakti University.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

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