Arvind Kejriwal
Amidst a heated controversy surrounding Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s diet and diabetes treatment during his time in Tihar jail, the jail authorities, in their report to Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor, stated that doctors from RML Hospital did not prescribe any insulin for Kejriwal. According to the accessed report by news agency ANI, it was noted that Kejriwal’s blood sugar levels were within safe limits, and he was advised to take oral anti-diabetic medication instead. This report contradicts claims made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), alleging that the prison authorities deliberately withheld insulin from Kejriwal as part of a conspiracy against him.
The Enforcement Directorate, responsible for Kejriwal’s arrest in a money-laundering case related to the Delhi liquor probe, informed the court that Kejriwal was consuming high-sugar foods with the intention of using any spike in his sugar levels as grounds for seeking bail on medical grounds.
The report highlighted that Kejriwal had been following an insulin-reversal program and had ceased insulin intake well before his arrest, relying solely on the oral diabetes medication Metformin. The Medical Legal Case (MLC) report from RML Hospital confirmed that neither insulin nor any necessity for it was advised for Kejriwal. He was only recommended oral anti-diabetic medication during his consultations on April 10th and 15th, 2024.
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The jail administration wrote to AIIMS, stating that Kejriwal had been consuming high-sugar items regularly, including sweets, bananas, mangoes, fruit chaat, namkeen, sweet tea, poori-aloo, and pickles, as he was permitted home-cooked food. In response, AAP contended that the sweets consumed were made with artificial sweeteners suitable for diabetic patients, and the consumption of poori-aloo occurred only during Navratri.
Delhi Minister Atishi rejected the jail report, asserting that Kejriwal had been administering 50 units of insulin even on the day preceding his incarceration. She criticized the jail report as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that any doctor would deem a blood sugar level of 300 to be dangerously high. Atishi accused the jail administration of attempting to harm Chief Minister Kejriwal at the BJP’s behest, questioning why there was reluctance to administer insulin when he had been relying on it for the past 12 years.
