The Election Commission has directed Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal to provide a fresh reply with “evidence” over his “poisoning river Yamuna” charge after it found his 14-page reply devoid of any facts to support his claim. The Commission directed the AAP leader to file a fresh reply by 11am on Friday.
The Election Commission, in a two-page response to Kejriwal’s reply, said his response was “entirely silent” on the poisoning charge. “No factual and legal matrix with evidence has been provided to support your statement. Whereas, instead of clarifying the factual and legal matrix of your statement you have chosen to justify your statement under question on high ammonia content in the river Yamuna in Delhi,” it said.
Commission said it is abstaining from arbitering water-sharing disputes between states for the short period of elections, as it has long-term implications.
“Commission has prima facie found your allegations about poisoning of river Yamuna as promoting disharmony and enmity between different groups, and overall public disorder and unrest even by the most sober interpretation,” the Commission noted in its letter. It said Kejriwal’s comments pose a serious risk of endangering peace and harmony between states and peoples.
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Warning Kejriwal of legal consequences, the EC directed the AAP leader to file a specific reply on “What kind of poison was mixed by state Government of Haryana in the Yamuna River: The supporting evidence about quantity, nature and manner of detecting the poison which could have caused genocide; The location where poison was detected; Which engineers of Delhi Jal Board detected it and how and where; What methodology those engineers employed in stopping poisonous water from entering NCT of Delhi?”
The former Delhi chief minister stoked a row recently after he charged, “Poison is being mixed into the Yamuna to make its water untreatable. If people in Delhi consume this water, many will die. This is nothing short of a mass murder."
Responding to EC’s notice, Kejriwal on Wednesday responded by saying “raw water received from Haryana in the recent past has been highly contaminated and extremely poisonous for human health”. In his response, Kejriwal said the alleged statements attributed to him were made as it was his public duty to red flag the "severe toxicity and contamination" of raw water received from the BJP-ruled state.
