Sisodia responds: BJP is lying to divert accountability from Centre
New Delhi: Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling AAP dispensation on Friday clashed in a fierce war of words over an "interim report" submitted to the Supreme Court, alleging that the Delhi government had inflated its oxygen needs during the second wave.
While the Delhi units of both the BJP and the Indian National Congress demanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation over the conclusions of the SC-appointed committee — submitted to the court by the Centre, AAP leaders in the city flatly rubbished the report's findings, with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia saying that the BJP was lying to absolve the Centre for the mismanagement of the oxygen crisis in the entire country.
While the Dy CM maintained that the report the BJP was citing had not come from the SC-appointed panel to audit oxygen and challenged anyone to bring forward a report that is signed by all members of the sub-group, he charged that this report in question was prepared at the BJP headquarters.
However, the barrage continued from the BJP, with several Union ministers, including Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, hitting out at the Delhi government over the report. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra also slammed the Delhi government, terming it to be a "heinous crime".
Railways Minister and senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal said on Twitter, "Hope accountability is fixed for disrupting oxygen supply across India", citing the SC-appointed oxygen audit committee's report.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar alleged that due to Delhi government, other states had to face the loss during the second wave of COVID-19, adding that
someone should learn from the AAP dispensation on how to make noise.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also tweeted: "actual oxygen consumption claimed by the Delhi government was four times higher than the calculated consumption as per the formula based on bed capacity...National Capital Territory of Delhi had surplus oxygen affecting supply to other states."
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had also tweeted about this, following which Sisodia had replied to him, saying that this report had been submitted to the court by the Centre and that the Delhi government would take it up in court.
Responding to the allegations from the BJP, Sisodia said it was the Centre that had grossly mismanaged the oxygen crisis in India.
"People were crying to arrange an oxygen cylinder for their family members, doctors requesting for more oxygen, hospitals demanding oxygen and facing huge crisis, attendants of patients, hospitals etc who went to court to
complain against this crisis are they all lying? Were these people lying when they said there is a dearth of oxygen, because of which they lost their loved ones?" the deputy chief minister said.
Accusing the BJP of lying, he said the saffron party's "lies have been unrelenting and limitless".
"I request Modi ji to take stock of his party, the lies orated by BJP have become perpetual and heinous. The BJP is no more Bhartiya Janata Party, but in fact, Bhartiya Jhagdaalu Party because all they do is fight. There is nothing else that BJP does other than fighting with states," he alleged.
