PM Modi targets Kejriwal in poll opener: I built homes for people, not a Sheesh Mahal

Attacking the AAP government, Modi called it an “aapda” (disaster) and urged people to “liberate” themselves by effecting a “change”.

Speaking in Ashok Vihar, where he inaugurated infrastructure projects that will cost an estimated Rs 4,500 crore, he accused the AAP of being involved in scams across sectors, from education to health.

Responding to the Prime Minister’s remarks, Kejriwal struck back: “Someone who himself lives in a Rs 2700-crore house, whose travel expenditure exceeds Rs 8400 crore, who himself wears suits worth over Rs 10 lakh, should not talk about Sheesh Mahal.”

He accused the BJP of being “enemies of the poor”, out to “demolish all jhuggis in Delhi by 2030” and keep residents in flats under “hellish conditions”. He said the AAP government, unlike the BJP, had worked for the people of Delhi.

In his speech, Modi said the AAP, which “used Anna Hazare as its face” to come to power, had become an “aapda” (disaster) for the people of Delhi.

“Yeh kattar beimaan log… Ek to chori upar se seena zori (These staunchly corrupt people… They steal and then defend themselves brazenly)… Dilli ke log keh rahe hain, aapda ki nahin sahenge, badal ke rahenge (The people of Delhi are saying they will not tolerate this disaster, and will usher in change),” he said.

“…Poora desh jaanta hai ki Modi ne kabhi apne liye ghar nahin banaya… Picchle 10 saalon mein 4 crore logon ko ghar diye… Main bhi Sheesh Mahal bana sakta tha… Par mere liye desh wasiyon ko ghar dena sapna tha (The country knows that Modi never built a home for himself. But in the last 10 years, 4 crore citizens have been given houses. I could have also built a Sheesh Mahal. But my dream was to give my citizens a house),” he said.

As many as 30,000 houses, he said, would be constructed and handed over to citizens in Delhi in the coming days under the PM Awas Yojana while work related to the development of the Narela sub-city would be fast-tracked.

Recalling his stay in Delhi during the Emergency, Modi sought to underline the role of education in the lives of the poor and the middle class and accused the AAP government of negatively impacting the school education sector and stalling implementation of Central schemes dedicated to it.

“Everyone dreams that their children get to study in good institutions. The BJP is focusing on this… It is not easy for the middle class to educate their children in English. Why can’t poor and middle-class children become doctors, engineers? The DU east and west campuses had to wait a long time… A new college named after Veer Savarkar will also be built in Najafgarh,” he said.

“Those who have been in government in the state have harmed school education. Of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan funds given by the Central government, not even half was spent on education by the state government,” he said.

“Delhi is the capital. Big expenditure projects are done by the Centre. Metro, roads, colleges, hospitals are being built by the Central government… The BJP government at the Centre is making electricity bill zero (through) the PM Surya Ghar Yojana… 75 lakh people have been given free ration in Delhi,” he said.

He said the AAP was not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme: “I want to give free treatment under Ayushman Yojana, but people from aapda are the villains of Delhi. They are not letting it come here in Delhi. People are suffering… The government has brought citizens above 70 years into the Ayushman (scheme)… But your son has not been able to serve Delhi’s elders… aapda people are not letting them take its benefits.”