NEW DELHI: The BJP hit back at Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday for likening Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb over ED raids against Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora, saying the AAP supremo and his party are rattled as they know that "their days are numbered in Punjab".
The remarks came after Kejriwal slammed the ED action against Arora in a post on X and addressed a press conference here on Saturday.
In the post, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor likened the prime minister to Aurangzeb and wrote that like the Mughal emperor, "Modiji has dishonestly occupied various parts of the country and has now reached Punjab".
At the press conference, Kejriwal slammed Modi over the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) raids against Arora on Saturday, alleging misuse of the federal agency to scare AAP leaders into joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Hitting back at him, BJP spokesperson R P Singh said corruption allegations against AAP leaders are not baseless and claimed that it is Kejriwal, and not Modi, who is carrying out "Aurangzeb-like" actions in Punjab.
"While the Punjab Police is not taking action against killings, the drug mafia or the sand mafia in the state, it is being used to target political opponents," Singh told PTI Videos.
He alleged that the Punjab Police was sent to arrest a Rajya Sabha MP who has left the AAP in a "fake case".
"In reality, it is Kejriwal who is behaving like Aurangzeb in Punjab. Punjab today is troubled by these Aurangzeb-like actions of his," Singh alleged.
He claimed that notices were issued through the Pollution Control Board against a factory linked to another Rajya Sabha MP who has left the AAP and that demolition action was initiated against a building belonging to a publishing house.
Singh also alleged that the entire AAP government in Punjab is steeped in corruption and that whenever action is taken against its leaders, the party creates an uproar.
"The reality is that their entire government is steeped in corruption and whenever any action is taken, they create an uproar. The basic issue is that they can see that their days are numbered, which is why they are making noise.
"The crackdown should not be seen as against the AAP but against corrupt people, and there is nothing wrong with the ED taking such action," he said.
Referring to former Punjab minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, Singh claimed that he is in jail not because of an ED raid, but because he had allegedly pressured an official to award a contract in favour of a particular company.
"When the official refused, pressure was allegedly exerted on him to such an extent that he died by suicide," the BJP leader alleged, adding that Bhullar is in jail in connection with corruption and abetment-to-suicide charges.
Earlier in the day, the ED conducted fresh searches against Arora and some others allegedly linked to him as part of an investigation into a newly-registered money-laundering case, officials said.
They said Arora's official residence in Chandigarh was among the five premises raided.
Kejriwal told the press conference that though the ED and the CBI are supposed to work on money-laundering and corruption cases, "under Modi's rule, these are working to threaten, scare and break away opposition leaders and force them to join the BJP. The raid against Arora is an action in the same direction".
He said this was the second ED raid against Arora within a month and wondered what the agency was looking for.
In his long post in Hindi on X, Kejriwal said, "Modiji has got daily ED raids started in Punjab soon after the Bengal polls concluded. Modiji has coerced Punjab in the last few years and ill-treated Punjabis through different means."
While likening Modi to Aurangzeb, he said taking inspiration from the sacrifices of the Sikh gurus, Punjab "will face Modiji's torture and save the whole country from it".
Kejriwal also claimed that AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal joined the BJP after ED raids at his premises.
Arora was also raided, but he did not join the saffron party and hence, another raid has been conducted against him, he claimed.
On April 24, seven of the AAP's 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak, announced that they were joining the BJP.
Subsequently, they merged with the BJP in the Rajya Sabha.