Country Needs to be Protected From Politics of Hate: Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Denouncing the recent incidents of alleged mob lynchings "in the name of religion and cow", Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the country needs to be protected from "this politics of hate".

He also castigated the Centre for rolling out the GST "without proper preparation" even though he lauded the "basic concept" behind the new tax law.

The GST will lead to a burgeoning of inflation, he said.

"The mob lynching are happening in the name of religion and cow. No religion preaches killing. Whosoever is doing this, there is a politics behind this and this is dirty politics. We have to save our country from this politics of hate," he said.

Kejriwal said if people decide not to fall prey to this "politics of hate", then the "leaders behind this" will get a message that such acts will not be tolerated.

His comments come a day after a BJP leader was arrested in an alleged mob lynching case in Jharkhand. Last month, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death on a Delhi-Mathura train when he was returning from Eid shopping from Delhi. Communal slurs were allegedly hurled on him.

Kejriwal was addressing party volunteers from all 70 constituencies in Delhi through Google Hangout.

The initiative was launched to strengthen the bond between the party leadership and the volunteers after AAP?s debacle in the recent MCD polls.

Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia was also participated in Hangout, seeking to assuage the concerns of people over the new taxation regime.

He contended that alcohol and real estate sector were "deliberately" kept out from the ambit of the GST because "politicians, racketeers, senior government officers" park their black money in these two industries.

"The world will make fun of us because on one hand you say you want to control black money and on the other alcohol and real estate are being kept out of the ambit of the GST," Sisodia claimed.

He asserted that contrary to the notion that the GST will bring down inflation, prices of several essential commodities will go up.