With meme showing Rahul as ‘lion’, Cong attacks Kejriwal and his tears, he says ‘Vadra’: Punjab a factor in this fight

AAm Aadmi company chief and former new delhi chief government minister Arvind Kejriwal stone-broke shoot down in tears on Friday after a Delhi court discharged him and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, with 21 others, in the CBI case linked to the Delhi excise policy of 2021-22. But any notion that this would draw sympathy — even unity — across the Opposition spectrum was quickly lost to memes and barbs. Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal asked if Kejriwal's tears carried "a bit of remorse too” for having made accusations against the party over the years, particularly at the time of launching the AAP in 2011-12."False accusations, fake messiah, hollow Lokpal — these were all part of the charade he orchestrated," Sappal wrote on X. He said Kejriwal's early political career was built by targeting former PM Manmohan Singh, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and the late Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit.Congress questions past recordCongress spokesperson Pawan Khera was even more pointed, suggesting that the CBI, controlled by the BJP-led Centre, may have weakened its case on purpose. "This is the BJP playbook: vendetta as governance and agencies as campaign tools," Khera wrote on X."Proceedings against their 'convenient allies' in the AAP and others will quietly vanish in light of the Gujarat and Punjab elections," Khera said.He noted that recently the Enforcement Directorate moved to hasten proceedings against Congress leader P Chidambaram in the Aircel Maxis and INX Media cases ahead of the Tamil Nadu polls.Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate sought to lampoon Kajriwal over his getting emotional. In a meme on X showing the AAP supremo crying — with added sound effects — Shrinate called Rahul Gandhi “our leader, a lion” purportedly for facing “32 cases” as against Kejriwal's “one case”.AAP boss hits back with Vadra questionKejriwal did not let the Congress remarks pass, while he also accused the BJP led by PM Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah of hatching a conspiracy against him. "I want to ask the Congress — Kejriwal went to jail; did Robert Vadra go to jail? (AAP leader) Sanjay Singh went to jail. Did Rahul Gandhi go to jail?... What is Congress saying? Does it have no shame?" he said at a press conference hours after his discharge by the Rouse Avenue court. Robert Vadra, a businessman and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, has been accused of corruption by the BJP for years, as have Rahul and Sonia who have faced questioning but not jail time so far.The AAP had allied with the Congress as part of the INDIA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024, but has since been cold towards its leadership of the national Opposition. The parties' being opposite sides in Punjab and other places is apparently a major reason for it.The Punjab dimensionPunjab is among factors at the nub of this political exchange. Assembly elections in the state are due by early next year, and the AAP government led by Bhagwant Mann has the Congress as the main Opposition there.Congress leader Sappal raised a question specifically about the AAP's record in Punjab, alleging that the Mann government’s actions mirror those of Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre. "In Punjab, the AAP government has continued to misuse the police machinery against the media in exactly the same way for which Modi is infamous," Sappal wrote on X.The Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP have all accused the AAP government in Punjab of deploying the state's agencies as a weapon. More recently, the AAP government faced accusations of deploying Punjab Police to “manage” electoral outcomes during the Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections in December 2025.The AAP government has consistently pushed back against accusations, and CM Mann has said: "We are just nailing the corrupt who have mercilessly plundered the wealth of the state." He has termed the investigations a "cleansing act" rather than a political campaign.What the Rouse Avenue court ruledAs for Friday’s relief for Kejriwal and others, the CBI has gone to the Delhi High Court against the discharge order.In its order, the Special Court at Rouse Avenue delivered a sweeping verdict, with Judge Jitender Singh ruling that the prosecution had failed to disclose "even the threshold of a prima facie suspicion, far less the grave suspicion" required to frame charges.The FIR was originally registered in August 2022 on a complaint by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, who alleged the excise policy was designed to favour select liquor licensees and caused losses to the public exchequer.Non-Cong Oppn voices for KejriwalKejriwal did get support from non-Congress opposition parties.The CPI(M) said the Modi government's “weaponisation of investigating agencies as tools of political vendetta stands fully exposed”, arguing that the relief to AAP leaders proved there was nothing in the case “beyond the vendetta-driven witch-hunt against opposition voices”.Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra posted on X: "Satyamev Jayate! BJP learn your lesson while there is still time — all your ED, your CBI puppets will die in the face of truth."K Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and herself among those discharged, said simply: "This was a web of lies. The judiciary has cut right through it."