New Delhi | Delhi Home Minister Kailash Gahlot hoisted the national flag at Chhatrasal stadium on Independence Day, the event marked by the absence of the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was dubbed by him as a "modern day freedom fighter".

Gahlot said he was distressed that the elected Delhi chief minister could not hoist the flag because he is in jail.

"Standing under this flag, I can say proudly that Arvind Kejriwal is a modern day freedom fighter because he accepted the punishment to work for the people of Delhi by going to the jail, but did not bow down or break in front of the anti-democratic forces," he said.

The country did not get freedom just so an elected chief minister could be put in jail; it got it to defeat illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, and diseases, he said.

Kejriwal began the effort to free the country from these ills, by providing quality education, healthcare, free electricity and world class transport facilities to the people in Delhi, he asserted.

Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in connection with an excise policy case and is currently lodged in Tihar jail.

India's democracy is too strong for any power to weaken it, Gahlot said, as he cited as example of the resilience, the release of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia from jail.

Sisodia, also arrested in connection with the excise policy case on February 26 last year, was granted bail by the Supreme Court.

Gahlot said the Delhi government led by the Aam Aadmi Party will continue to give free electricity, education, healthcare, and bus rides to women, as Kejriwal intends.