GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday dug up an old tweet of Arvind Kejriwal, pointing out how the Delhi CM had offered to buy PPE kits from anywhere without floating a tender. He further asked if Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia would think that Kejriwal as corrupt as he had suo moto offered to buy the PPE kits.
In his tweet posted on April 6, 2020, Kejriwal had addressed BJP MP and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir, saying, “Gautam ji, thank u for ur offer. The problem is not of money but availability of PPE kits. We wud be grateful if u cud help us get them from somewhere immediately, Del govt will buy them. Thank u.”
Sharing it on the micro-blogging site, Sarma wrote, “AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) leaders chose to contradict each other rather than fighting a crisis. People of Delhi are paying the price for this.” The issue has turned into a high-pitched battle after Sisodia targeted the BJP on Saturday, claiming that Sarma had given contracts to companies of his wife and son’s business partners to supply PPE kits above market rates when the pandemic began in 2020.
Sisodia had earlier said, “It is a major scam by the Assam CM and his associates. It is a solid corruption case and the ED is after (Satyendar) Jain who is working hard to provide quality healthcare to people of Delhi.” The Delhi health minister was arrested on May 30 in a money laundering case.
The Assam CM stated that the company in question wrote to the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam, stating that the supply of around 1,500 PPE kits for Covid warriors must be treated as CSR contribution and hence, not a single rupee must be paid by the government. He said the NHM had duly acknowledged it. He shared some documents in support of his claim.
“Manish bhai, this is not corruption; it’s humanity. My wife hasn’t committed a crime. She tried to help Assam at the time of its biggest crisis,” Sarma said. Stating that throwing muck at others will not be accepted, he reiterated Sisodia would face legal consequences.