NEW DELHI: With the polls round the corner, the BJP and the AAP upped the ante over the work done in the government schools in the national capital. Union Home Minister Amit Shah fired the first salvo when he asked the AAP how many schools were constructed in the last five years. Shah has been reiterating that the AAP government failed to fulfill the promise of “constructing 1000” schools.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia took Shah head-on by inviting the BJP leader to visit the Delhi government schools. While Kejriwal invited Shah on Saturday saying that he was ready to cancel all his appointments for showing the home minister all the Delhi government schools, other AAP leaders challenged Shah to show one school in the BJP-ruled states comparable to the Delhi schools.
“We have not just constructed the new schools but refurbished the old ones to a great extent,” said Sisodia, who is also the education minister. He also invited Shah to his Patparganj constituency to visit the newly built school of excellence. BJP’s Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari then jumped into the fray, alleging that the AAP government couldn’t fulfill its promise to open 500 new schools. Tiwari then sent a counter invite to Kejriwal and Sisodia for a joint visit to a government school in Mustafabad on Monday.
“In 2015, there were 1,000 government schools and after 500 new schools, the figure should have been 1,500. To show the status of education, I invite Kejriwal and Sisodia to Mustafabad’s school on January 27. Please come there at 12 pm and they should themselves see,” he said.Tiwari also invited them to inspect MCD schools saying that despite lack of funds, BJP improved the status of education.
FIGHT on TWITTER
Kejriwal took to Twitter to take a dig at Shah. ”You must ask BJP supporters, who took care of their children’s education for five years, who provided 24 hours of electricity to them, when you have caused so much inflation, who are those who made electricity, bus travel free for them. These are all people of my family, I have taken care of them as an elder son.” Kejriwal also said Shah remembers his supporters only before polls.
“You remember them at the time of election. We are all like a family,” he said