Nadda takes dig at AAP for rejecting Ayushman Bharat: ‘Didn’t think about poor people, so you lost power’

He called the last seven years a dark chapter of Delhi, where the rights of 30 lakh people did not reach them. “You had the power, you did not think about the poor people, and now you have lost the power,” he said of the previous AAP government in Delhi.

Nadda said that PM Narendra Modi had already allocated Rs 2,406 crore for the people of Delhi under the government’s Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (ABHIM) in 2021, but it was not implemented before Thursday’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Capital and the Centre.

The scheme, which is meant to strengthen health infrastructure, will be utilised to set up 1,139 Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, 11 integrated laboratories, and 9 critical care hospitals in Delhi.

“This was your right, PM Modi had already given this money to you, but you had to go to the High Court to get the scheme implemented. We won the case. And, then there was health minister (Saurabh) Bharadwaj… he went to the Supreme Court, saying that we will not implement this in Delhi.”

When he named Bharadwaj, some members of the audience shouted “thief” and Nadda continued after saying, “Yes, the same one… the one you just named.”

Pitching for a BJP government in Delhi in the future too, the minister also said: “You need to think about how your rights are violated when a bad government comes to power and how you get them within 50 days when a good government comes to power. It is your responsibility to take care of a good thing… You have to take an oath that such a government will not be allowed to come back to Delhi.”

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who was at the event, said the people of Delhi had been denied their rights so far, but were given Ayushman cards within 50 days of the new government coming to power.

She added that there was a crisis in Delhi during the Covid-19 pandemic — there were no beds, no doctors, no oxygen, there were queues at the crematoriums — and it happened because the Delhi government refused to take the help that was offered by the Centre.

She said even now, the people of Delhi have to wait for months to get some tests or surgeries because there is a shortage of facilities. She said the previous government had initiated the construction of 24 hospitals that continue to remain pending.

“Several thousand crores have already been spent but they are still not in a condition to be utilised. This year, we have proposed a Rs 13,000-crore budget, of which Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated to operationalise the hospitals that can be quickly completed,” said Gupta.

She added that the health and wellness centres — now referred to as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs — that will be constructed under PM-ABHIM will provide much better facilities than the mohalla clinics that had been started in porta cabins on the side of the roads and next to drains.

“It will provide mother and child care services, immunisation, elder care, and treatment for several non-communicable diseases. The integrated labs — one in each district — will ensure that people can get their tests done quickly. And, critical care blocks will be started in prominent Delhi hospitals, which will get new ICUs and OTs under the mission,” said Gupta.

Reacting to the move, AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar called “Ayushman Bharat a scam, not a scheme” and claimed the BJP is sabotaging Delhi’s world-class healthcare model. She said that under former CM Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership, Delhi built a universally accessible and efficient public healthcare system, and has no need for a “scheme that benefits a few and cheats the rest.”