Politicians criticise Kejriwal's bashing of media

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal's statement on media that it has been paid heavily to promote the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi created flutter among politicians on Friday.

At a fund-raising event in Nagpur on Thursday, Kejriwal hit out at the media saying they have been paid heavily to promote Modi. He also lashed out at the media for focusing on his security deployment, and alleged that media is sold and part of the political conspiracy against him.

He further added that if his government comes to power, he will set up an inquiry into this political conspiracy and along with the media people, everyone involved will be sent to prison.

However, as the video went viral stirring a controversy, the AAP chief denied making the remarks.

Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal said that Kejriwal and his party members are already known for making such statements to seek attention and this statement comes out as a sign to show his frustration and anxious behavior.

"He had said this before also that when they will come to power they will take the initiative of improving Congress, but they ran away. The moment you take their reality in front of the masses, they will run away from there too. They can do nothing to the media. Media is powerful and whenever they think there is news, they show it and they suddenly act as if unaware. They become worried and whenever they see a worrisome situation they start slamming us. Nobody can target media. People who do work do not run away," said Sibal.

On Kejriwal's statement directing his anger towards Modi, BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar called it a rebel attitude.

"This is a clear indication of authoritative behavior. Their ideology resembles that of Maoists and by slamming the media they want to end the democracy. This is their motive. In his speech in Nagpur, he has recently threatened media persons to send them to jail when they come to power. He has made allegations like 'media is sold out' and 'media is sold to Modi' and that 'if we form the government then we will send the mediapersons to jail'," said Javadekar.

Furthermore, Congress leader Jai Parkash Aggarwal said AAP thinks of others as nothing and themselves as god.

"Their language has always been bad. First they said all the officers, politicians and police are thieves and now they are accusing the media. I feel that they think that they are god," said Aggarwal in New Delhi.

Kejriwal arrived in Mumbai on March 12 as part of his three-day election campaign in Maharashtra.