NEW DELHI:After much delay and controversy, the BJP on Tuesday released its ‘Vision Document’ for the Delhi Assembly polls in the place of ‘election manifesto’ promising to make the national capital a world-class city. However, the party came under attack from the Opposition parties after the document referred to people from North-East states living here as ‘immigrants’.
The party also came under attack for not mentioning ‘full statehood to the national capital’ as it was one of its key planks during the Lok Sabha poll campiagn.
On mentioning the North Easterners as immigrants, the Congress lashed out at saffron party, with its CM face Ajay Maken wondering aloud as to “Whether the BJP was trying to say that the people from the Northeast were not Indian citizens”.
“The word immigrant is used when people move from one country to another, so does the BJP consider people from the NorthEast states as residents of some other country or the NorthEast states according to them are not part of India,” he said.
“We demand that they remove that sentence from the manifesto and apologise to the public,” Maken said.
On the issue of full statehood for Delhi, BJP senior leader Nirmala Sitharaman said it was an important matter for the party and “we will discuss it with the stakeholders before taking a final decision”.
The party also did not make any specific mention about cutting power tariff, which was a big promise ahead of last Assembly polls, but the document stated: “BPL and poor families will be provided power at subsidised rate”.
While releasing the document, BJP’s CM candidate Kiran Bedi said, “We will make Delhi a world-class city. We will ensure development of all sections. Women’s security will be a priority area for us.” Taking a cue from the PM’s ‘Mann ki Baat’radio address, Bedi said she would launch her own ‘Dil ki Baat.’
It was a clerical Mistake, says BJP
After Congress attack, the BJP came out with a clarification on the social sites, “In the Vision Document, on Page 11, under the heading ‘North Eastern Immigrants to be protected’, immigrants to be read as migrants.”
Clarifying the party’s stand, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “It was a clerical mistake, a printing error. We will correct the mistake.”