PM labels AAP as ‘AAPda,’ Kejriwal hits back
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a swipe at former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, referring to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government as an “AAPda” (disaster) that has gripped Delhi for the past decade.
Ahead of Assembly polls in Delhi, PM Modi accused the AAP leadership of pushing Delhi into a crisis and claimed their governance was defined by corruption and mismanagement.
“In the last 10 years, Delhi has been surrounded by an ‘AAPda’. AAP has descended as a calamity on Delhi. I could have built a ‘sheesh mahal’ (glass palace) too, but I chose to build more than 4 crore homes for the poor,” PM Modi said, alluding to recent allegations of exorbitant expenditures on the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence.
He was speaking at a ceremony inaugurating 1,675 flats for residents of slum clusters and two major urban redevelopment projects in the national capital.
He hit out at the AAP-led city government and said the situation in the national capital would worsen Continued on P4Vinay Kumar
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a swipe at former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, referring to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government as an “AAPda” (disaster) that has gripped Delhi for the past decade.
Ahead of Assembly polls in Delhi, PM Modi accused the AAP leadership of pushing Delhi into a crisis and claimed their governance was defined by corruption and mismanagement.
“In the last 10 years, Delhi has been surrounded by an ‘AAPda’. AAP has descended as a calamity on Delhi. I could have built a ‘sheesh mahal’ (glass palace) too, but I chose to build more than 4 crore homes for the poor,” PM Modi said, alluding to recent allegations of exorbitant expenditures on the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence.
He was speaking at a ceremony inaugurating 1,675 flats for residents of slum clusters and two major urban redevelopment projects in the national capital.
He hit out at the AAP-led city government and said the situation in the national capital would worsen if its reign continued. He accused the AAP government of committing corruption in a host of sectors ranging from school education to fighting pollution and the liquor trade.
Giving a call for AAP’s defeat in the coming elections, Modi raised the slogan, “’AAPda’ ko nahi sahenge, badal kar rahenge (we will not tolerate ‘AAPda’, we will remove it).”
Due to the city government not allowing the Centre’s signature health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, and other programmes in the national capital, Modi said he was unable to fully help the people living here despite his efforts.
If highways are being built in the capital and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has been able to make houses for the poor, it is because “aapda” does not have much role in these sectors, he added.
Taking a swipe at Kejriwal, PM Modi said he could also have built a “sheesh mahal” for himself but his dream was to ensure homes for everyone in the country.
“These people commit corruption and then glorify it,” he said, accusing AAP of shamelessness and making false promises.
The BJP has been targeting Kejriwal for allegedly spending a huge amount of money on his official residence when he was chief minister, and described his erstwhile home as “sheesh mahal”.
“But in the past 10 years, (my government) has built four crore houses for the poor and fulfilled their dreams. I could have also built a ‘sheesh mahal’. But my dream was to give a pucca house to my countrymen,” he said, stressing his vision to provide a concrete house to those living in slums.
He said 2025 would bring many new possibilities for India, asserting that the country had become a symbol of political and economic stability in the world.
India will rise to become a big manufacturing hub in the new year in which new records in the agriculture sector and women-led development will be registered as well, he said. The prime minister asserted India’s global standing and image would also be strengthened in 2025.
Providing affordable housing to the poor and the middle class is a priority for the BJP-led central government, he said and added one crore new houses would be built for the urban poor in the next phase.
It is the BJP-led government at the Centre which will help do it, Modi said. The government is also providing a big rebate in home loan interest rates so that the middle class can own a home, the prime minister said while also highlighting the Centre’s efforts to boost infrastructure in the education sector.
Modi inaugurated a slew of development projects, including 1,675 flats for residents of ‘jhuggi-jhopri’ (JJ) or slum clusters and two urban redevelopment projects in the city.
He virtually laid the foundation stones for two new Delhi University campuses and a college named after BJP ideologue Veer Savarkar. The project, with an investment of over Rs 600 crore, aims to boost educational opportunities and modernise facilities.
