AAP stages protest in Delhi Assembly against rice ‘scam’, 8 MLAs marshalled out of House

Even as AAP had been alleging a rice scam by the BJP-led government since the beginning of the session, Sirsa has denied the charge, terming it “false” and “fabricated”.

Sirsa said they neither bought, nor sold any rice. “We had a representation from a company. I only wrote ‘May be considered as per rules’. I think, the Opposition has no real issue left to raise so they are coming up with one or another false allegations… I will take them to court…,” the Minister said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sirsa said he is sending a defamation notice to AAP’s Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj and party MLA Sanjeev Jha.

In a post on X, he said: “…It seems like in AAP, there’s no fixed narrative for lies—whichever leader steps forward crafts a fresh version of the false accusations accordingly. Here’s a small piece of advice for AAP leaders: at least sit down together once and decide what the false accusation should be, so that everyone can at least stick to one story.”

“This is the same old politics of the Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal Ji—whenever the BJP government works for Delhi’s people, bring out new accusations and stories to divert attention. But a lie doesn’t become truth just by repeating it a hundred times. Now, against these false and malicious stories, I will take this defamation case to court. There, they will have to answer for all these false statements and accusations,” Sirsa added.

Meanwhile, AAP’s Bharadwaj wrote on X, “There have been very serious allegations against Mr Sirsa’s department which recommended FCI to give subsidised Rice to a North-East corporation based in Assam. The subsidised rice which was only meant to be distributed to Delhi’s poor & migrant population was instead black marketed to a Pvt company in Haryana.

“Crores of rupees were earned as illegal commission,” Bharadwaj said in the post.

In a purported video, which Bharadwaj and Jha shared on X later during the day, an MLAs can be seen being marshalled out of the House.

Bharadwaj, in a separate post on X addressing Sirsa, also wrote: “Don’t be so angry. A responsible minister should calmly answer the opposition’s questions. Don’t try to intimidate by threatening court action.”