Independence Day 2024: Aam Aadmi Party leader Kailash Gahlot on Thursday hoisted the national flag at Chhatrasal Stadium in the national capital on the occasion of India's 78th Independence Day. He was nominated by Lt Governor VK Saxena on Tuesday to hoist the national flag at the capital's Independence Day event.
The event was marked by the absence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently lodged inside Tihar jail in connection with an excise policy case.
Speaking during the event, Gahlot dubbed the Delhi CM a "modern day freedom fighter". He said that he was distressed that the elected Delhi chief minister could not hoist the flag because he is in jail.
"Standing under this flag, I can say proudly that Arvind Kejriwal is a modern day freedom fighter because he accepted the punishment to work for the people of Delhi by going to the jail, but did not bow down or break in front of the anti-democratic forces," he said, as quoted by news agency PTI.
The country did not get freedom just so an elected chief minister could be put in jail; it got it to defeat illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, and diseases, he said. Kejriwal began the effort to free the country from these ills, by providing quality education, healthcare, free electricity and world class transport facilities to the people in Delhi, he asserted.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in connection with an excise policy case and is currently lodged in Tihar jail. Gahlot said that the AAP-led Delhi government will continue to give free electricity, education, healthcare, and bus rides to women, as Kejriwal intends.