Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal are spicing up the air with heated verbal duelling as the cold-ridden capital heads for elections.
It’s a battle Modi desperately needs to win; it’s a battle Kejriwal as desperately needs not to lose.
The two leaders on Sunday accused each other of slowing Delhi’s progress, the verbal duel coming on the third consecutive day the Prime Minister inaugurated development projects in the election-bound state.
Modi repeated a pun on the abbreviation “AAP” — Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party, of which Kejriwal is the national convener — that he had used earlier on Friday.
“In the past 10 years, Delhi has witnessed a state government that is no less than an ‘AAPda (disaster)’! Delhi’ites have realised this. Only one voice is reverberating in Delhi — ‘Aapda nahi sahenge, badal kar rahenge (Won’t tolerate disaster, will bring change),” he said at an event in Rohini, northwest Delhi.
Modi inaugurated the Namo Bharat corridor between Sahibabad and New Ashok Nagar and laid foundations for projects worth more than ₹12,000 crore.
On Friday, the Prime Minister had alleged: “Using Anna Hazare as a façade, some deeply dishonest people had hurled Delhi into aapda…. Delhi’s voters are saying they won’t tolerate this aapda but usher in change.”
At the Grameen Bharat Mahotsav on Saturday, the Prime Minister had accused the Opposition of neglecting India’s villages for decades.
In response, Kejriwal listed the unfulfilled promises Modi had made during the 2020 Assembly poll campaign in Delhi, where fresh elections are expected to be announced soon.
“These three projects (of the railways and the Delhi Metro, announced by Modi) are joint ventures of the Delhi government and the central government,” the former chief minister told reporters at his party headquarters on Sunday.
“To those who accuse the Aam Aadmi Party of frequent conflicts, the commencement of these three projects is a response that the Aam Aadmi Party works solely and exclusively for the people of Delhi.”
Kejriwal added: “We were harassed and troubled. But, despite all this, when we (Kejriwal and two former AAP ministers) were all released from jail in August-September (on bail in an economic offences case), we did not make the atrocities committed against us a political issue….
Kejriwal added: “Today’s inauguration is only possible because, after coming out of jail, we resolved that no matter what, even if we face countless atrocities, the work for Delhi must not stop, the Delhi Metro must not stop, and the RRTS must not stop.”
“People expect the Prime Minister to provide a vision for the country, a vision for Delhi, or announce some major initiatives. But he only came to hurl abuses. I don’t want to delve into those abuses. I want to request the Prime Minister and remind him of his previous manifesto promises. (Fulfilment of) the promises he made in 2020 are still awaited by my brothers from Delhi’s rural areas.”
“In 2020, the Prime Minister also promised alternative plots (to farmers for land acquired from them). Everything I am saying is documented in their manifesto…. The lack of notification for the Delhi Master Plan 2041 has halted all development in Delhi,” he said. “Today, all people in rural Delhi are ready to take revenge on the BJP. They say they no longer trust what the Prime Minister promises. The Prime Minister lies during every election...."
