Arvind Kejriwal takes oath of office along with cabinet. Says he does not have a magic wand but believes in the unity of people.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal took oath of office as Delhi’s new Chief Minister on Saturday noon. The youngest chief minister of Delhi, Kejriwal, made people take a solemn pledge that they would never give or take bribes.
“We must promise we will never give or take bribes,” said Kejriwal to the hundreds and thousands of his cheering supporters and citizens of Delhi at Ramlila Maidan in his first speech after his swearing in.
“I promise I will never give bribes or take bribes,” he said and asked people to repeat after him.
He said he would announce a telephone number in two days on which people could complain about any official demanding bribes. “We shall catch the corrupt red-handed,” said Kejriwal.
The Ramlila Maidan appeared as a sea of Gandhi topis worn by people and AAP volunteers. Kejriwal’s cabinet ministers – Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla, Saurav Bhardwaj, Somnath Bharti, Satyendra Jain and Girish Soni – also took oath administered by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.
Today’s mood in Delhi during oath of AAP was same when Morarji took pledge at Rajghat in 1977 as PM. I was witness to that historic moment.
— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) December 28, 2013
All the seven people who took oath as ministers in Delhi’s new government, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, wore their trademark white sidecaps emblazoned with the party”s name on one side and slogans on other in Hindi saying “I seek full freedom”, “I seek self-rule” and “I am a common man”.
Kejriwal, in his first ever speech after his swearing in asked his ministers to remain grounded. He said that there should not come a situation where another party should take birth to break our high headness.
Stating clearly that “there is no magic wand” and that they “do not have solution to everything”, but he added that he believed in unity of people which will help find a solution to every problem.
Remembering that Ramlila ground was the first stop from where he started the anti-corruption movement with Anna Hazare, Kejriwal said that it was necessary to clean politics.
No Congress leader or any other leader was present at the swearing in ceremony except BJP leader Dr Harsh Vardhan who found a mention in Kejriwal’s speech. The new CM showed his regard to Dr Harsh Vardhan and asked every leader cutting across political parties to help him run the government and delivering good governance to the people of Delhi.
May God protect Arvind, his team and Aam Admi who has driven the change in value systems in politics. Good for the entire country!
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) December 28, 2013
Kejriwal said that bureaucracy may pose a problem to work with but he expressed hope that good bureaucrats will help him run the government smoothly.
Kejriwal paid a visit to Raj Ghat after taking oath and then headed straight to CM office where he tried to visit each and every department.
A cabinet meeting is scheduled at 2 pm today. Although no minister has been given a specific portfolio, it is likely that ministers will be assigned departments in this meeting.
