Arvind Kejriwal pays for shoot-and-scoot politics with apologies

Twitter is having a field day lampooning Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for tendering apologies to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal. Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had filed separate cases against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor for making defamatory statements against them.

Last week, Kejriwal had apologised to former Punjab minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Majithia, who the AAP leader had accused of being involved in the drug trade. As a political fallout of Kejriwal’s last week apology, AAP MP and Punjab head Bhagwant Mann resigned from his post as Punjab AAP chief.

In his apology letter to Gadkari, Kejriwal urged the BJP leader to “put the incident behind us.” It is being reported that Gadkari and Kejriwal filed a joint application in Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Monday to end the defamatory proceedings, which had started in 2014, nearly two years after the Delhi CM leader included Gadkari “in the list of India’s most corrupt” politicians.

However, the series of apologies by the Delhi chief minister seem to be denting his credibility. Kejriwal is facing over 30 defamation cases, including several filed by political heavyweights such as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

While former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the “political cost” at which the Kejriwal was making his apologies, another Twitter user asked if Kejriwal should be taken seriously at all the next time he levels allegations on his political opponents.

Omar Abdullah wrote,

A blogger said,

Journalist Rahul Kanwal tweeted,

Veteran scribe Barkha Dutt reacted,

Prominent blogger Pratik Sinha said,

Writer Suhel Seth said,

Another Twitter user wrote,