The political air of Delhi is heating up with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trading barbs against each other ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday reacted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Aapda Sarkar” remark and invited him to come to the national capital to see the government schools.
“I feel like laughing when the PM talks about the education system in Delhi…Today, many big people from across the world come to Delhi to see the schools here. I would also invite PM Modi to come and see the government schools and decide if work has been done or not. It is unfortunate that he is saying this from a big stage,” Bharadwaj said. Earlier in the day, PM Modi, who was in the national capital, attacked AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and said that Delhi has been surrounded by an ‘Aapda’ for the last 10 years.
“In the last 10 years, Delhi has been surrounded by an ‘Aapda.’ By keeping Anna Hazare at the front, a few ‘kattar beimaan’ people have pushed Delhi towards ‘Aapda.’ ‘AAP aapda bankar Delhi par toot padi hai’,” he said while addressing a public meeting in Ashok Vihar’s Ramlila Ground.
#WATCH | On PM Modi terming Delhi govt as “Aapda Sarkar”, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj says, “I feel like laughing when the PM talks about the education system in Delhi…Today, many big people from across the world come to Delhi to see the schools here. I would also invite PM… pic.twitter.com/qS18xDh4YR
— ANI (@ANI) January 3, 2025
Continuing his attack on the AAP, the Prime Minister said, “…Ye AAP, ye ‘aapda,’ Delhi par aayi hai’, and hence the people of Delhi have waged a war against aapda.'” Voters of Delhi have made up their minds to free Delhi from this ‘aapda.’ Every voter of Delhi is saying, ‘Aapda ko nahi sahenge, badal ke rahenge…'”
Lashing out at the BJP, The AAP minister said that they had promised that everyone in the country would have a permanent house by 2022, and the deadline has passed. The BJP had said they would provide 2.5 crore people with permanent houses by 2020, but in 2025 they are just giving away 1,675 flats, he said, adding that this was humiliating the poor.
“BJP had promised that everyone in the country would have a permanent house by 2022. We are three years past the deadline. I can’t talk about the entire country, but let us talk about Delhi. Has the PM given people permanent housing here? They had talked about giving 2.5 crore people permanent houses in Delhi by 2022. Now in 2025, they are giving away just 1,675 flats. This is a humiliation for the poor,” Bharadwaj told ANI.
He further said that lakhs of poor people from the slums have been displaced by the central government’s Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Railways, who have been sleeping under flyovers. “I can challenge this. The central government’s DDA, Railways, etc., have displaced lakhs of poor people (from slums), and they are now sleeping under flyovers, in night shelters. I want the central government to give assurance that they will take action against the officials who have done this. We would like to know what action is taken against them,” the AAP leader said.