Kejriwal leads protest against Delhi govt on power tariff hike

Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday led a protest against Delhi government on power tariff hike and asked people not to pay electricity bills, the first after his split with Anna Hazare in which the activist could not garner much crowd.

Held after the erstwhile Team Anna split on the issue of forming a party, around 300-400 people gathered at Jantar Mantar where Kejriwal announced a new 'Civil Disobedience Movement' asking people not to pay bills if the Sheila Dikshit government does not order CAG audit of private discoms.

Hazare was missed at the protest, with Kejriwal saying the veteran activist lives in their hearts and expressed hope that he "will come back to them in three-four months once he see our honest and dedicated work".

"None can take him away from us. It is just that while he believes that politics is a dirty thing, we are of the view that we have to enter politics to clean it," he said.

Hazare and his supporters, including Kiran Bedi, parted ways with the Kejriwal-led group on September 19 over the anti-graft movement taking a plunge into politics.

The protest, which is seen as a prelude to the group's entry into politics formally, demonstrated keenness of the Kejriwal-led group to fight the Delhi Assembly elections slated next year as it targeted the Congress government in the capital.

The group, which has decided to form party, had earlier indicated that it will not fight the Assembly elections in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh scheduled later this year, as it could not get its act together there.

At today's protest, people set afire electricity bills, alleging there was collusion between the city government and discoms to increase power tariff and help private companies earn more. "We should not pay power bills. We will have a new Civil Disobedience Movement," Kejriwal said.

He accused the Prime Minister of lying on the issue of FDI and diesel price hike.

"The Prime Minister terms capping supply of subsidised LPG cylinders and diesel hike as reforms. This is not reform but deforming the country," Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal alleged that Delhi government and private discoms were conniving together to "loot" people.

On the question of forming a political party, he said, "They say I am doing politics. Yes, I am doing politics. We are doing politics for the people. They do politics to indulge in corruption."

Addressing the protesters, activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan contested Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia's remark that 'loss is a matter of fact and profit and gain is a matter of opinion', saying such statements were "unfortunate".

Without making any direct reference to the controversies over the CAG reports on presumptive loss in the 2G spectrum allocation or the gains to private corporates in the coal block allotment, Kapadia had said, "sometime we see certain (TV) programmes and we build up our perceptions.

"How many of us know the basic principle of valuation. Today a number of controversies on valuation are discussed but the basic principle of valuation is that loss is a matter of fact and profit is a matter of opinion," the CJI had said.