AAP boycotts President Murmu's address to Parliament over Arvind Kejriwal's arrest

'We did not have a discussion with the remaining parties of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc regarding this but our party boycotted the President's address,' AAP leader Sandeep Pathak said.

New Delhi: AAP on Thursday boycotted President Droupadi Murmu's address to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,outlining the agenda of the Narendra Modi government, protesting against the continued incarceration of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

Party MPs led by Sanjay Singh and Sandeep Pathak also staged a protest against the government following Kejriwal's arrest by the CBI, amid the AAP chief's wife Sunita Kejrwal saying, "Till now the prayer has always been that God should give wisdom to everyone. But now the prayer will be that the dictator should be destroyed."

"AAP MPs protested in Parliament premises against the conspiracy of the Modi government to arrest the popular Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by misusing ED-CBI. The Constitution is supreme in this country and when dictatorship is done in the name of justice, it is necessary to raise voice," AAP said on X.

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Pathak said they boycotted the President's address. "The President and the Constitution are supreme and when dictatorship is done in the name of justice, it is important to raise our voices. We did not have a discussion with the remaining parties of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc regarding this but our party boycotted the President's address," he said.

Protest on June 29

AAP also decided to hold a nationwide protest against Kejriwal's "illegal" arrest on June 29. Pathak alleged that the BJP government is misusing all central investigation agencies for its political purposes

Singh, whose suspension from the House was revoked, said the developments in the past one week resembled "dictatorship".

He alleged that the government used the CBI to ensure that Kejriwal remained in jail despite a local court granting him bail. He claimed the ED obtained an interim stay without a copy of the local court's bail order and when Kejriwal was all set to get bail from the Supreme Court, the government chipped in and used the CBI to arrest him.

"We boycotted the President's address. It is not her speech but one prepared by the government. She is reading out the government's speech as per procedure," he added.