New Delhi: Former chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal is likely to appear on Friday before the Committee of Privileges of Delhi Assembly, which has summoned him in connection with the ‘Phansi Ghar' row.
In a letter to the panel's chairperson on Tuesday, Kejriwal acknowledged the receipt of the summons dated Feb 18 and promised to appear before the committee at 3pm on March 6.
The AAP national convener also requested the committee to live-stream the proceedings "in the inter-est of transparency and public accountability".
On X, Kejriwal wrote, "Delhi is grappling with pollution. The roads are broken. There are piles of garbage everywhere. Hospitals are out of medicines. Delhi Assembly summoned me to question me about the ‘Phansi Ghar'." Sharing a copy of the letter, he also wrote he would appear before the committee.
An assembly official confirmed that Kejriwal had informed the committee about appearing before it. On the live-streaming of the proceedings, he said, "The proceedings of the committee and also its reports are confidential, and the report can only be submitted in the House."
Kejriwal, with other AAP functionaries, had unveiled in 2022 the restored ‘Phansi Ghar' in the British-era assembly building. It was a two-storey, enclosed, red-brick-walled room with a symbolic hanging rope. It also had the murals of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, and a board claiming "innumerable unknown freedom fighters were hanged here".
After BJP formed govt in 2025, speaker Vijender Gupta said he had found no historical evidence behind ‘Phansi Ghar' and the National Archives records indicated the space was actually a tiffin room. Later, the matter was referred to the assembly committee, which had first asked Kejriwal and others to appear before it last year.
In 2025, Kejriwal had skipped two summonses and "a separate proceeding for the contempt of the House is also going on against him", the assembly official said.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, "Kejriwal has been summoned for inaugurating a ‘Phansi Ghar' in Delhi Assembly, which has been conclusively found to be a tiffin room. But Kejriwal in his tweet has tried to divert it towards pollution and a whole lot of political issues."
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Alok K N Mishra is a New Delhi–based journalist with The Times of...
Read MoreAlok K N Mishra is a New Delhi–based journalist with The Times of India. He has a deep interest in politics and in exploring how governance can be made to work better for the middle class and the poor. He also enjoys analyzing and predicting national political trends.
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