NEW DELHI: A week after Uttar Pradesh Education Minister Satish Dwivedi invited Manish Sisodia to visit government schools in the state, his Delhi counterpart reached Lucknow on Tuesday and dared UP minister Sidharth Nath Singh to join him in a debate on the standards of education in India’s most populous state.
With a touch of drama, Sisodia along with AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh held an open debate-cum-press conference to draw a parallel between UP’s model of governance and that of Delhi under CM Arvind Kejriwal at Gandhi Bhawan in Kaiserbagh area, keeping a vacant chair waiting for Sidharth Nath with his name written over it.
“After the formation of this government, the people of UP are asking what have they achieved? While schools in Delhi have improved, fees were not increased, 80% of people are getting electricity for free, the condition of UP has gone from bad to worse,” Sisodia said.
“We have done what no one had imagined before. We have changed the face of government schools and it was no easy task. It can be done in Uttar Pradesh as well, if the AAP comes to power,” he said. Last week, Kejriwal had announced that the AAP will fight the 2022 UP Assembly polls with its full strength.
“I will wait for Siddharth Nath Singh and I am sure he will come forward for the debate,” Sisodia told reporters, pointing at the vacant chair. Comparing the education standards of the two states, Sisodia said: “The government schools in Delhi are improving with each passing day, with the students’ average score is 90%. The UP government’s outdated and mismanaged model has only led the students astray, with them scoring around 60% at the very best,” said Sisodia.
Earlier in the day, Sisodia’s convoy, heading for a school in Lucknow, was stopped by the police. Taking a swipe at the UP CM, Kejriwal later tweeted in Hindi: “Yogi ji, you did not show your schools even after inviting Manish ji… I invite you to Delhi. I will show you the schools here.”
With inputs from Namita Bajpai in Lucknow