New Delhi: In an attempt to woo slum voters who have a significant influence on 20 Assembly seats in Delhi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday challenged Union home minister Amit Shah, saying he will not contest the upcoming elections if the Central government withdraws all cases related to slum demolitions. He also alleged that the BJP will demolish all slums in the national capital if it is voted to power in the February 5 state elections. The BJP dubbed Mr Kejriwal’s claims “baseless” and an attempt to divert attention from the AAP government’s failures.
Mr Kejriwal’s remarks came a day after Mr Shah accused him of building expensive toilets and his “Sheesh Mahal” (Delhi chief minister’s residence) that are “costlier than the entire slums of Delhi.” Calling himself the “protector of slums and slum residents”, the former Delhi CM said that the BJP remembers them only during elections.
Mr Kejriwal said the BJP will prioritise land over slum-dwellers after the polls, citing how the Delhi lieutenant-governor changed the land use of the Shakur Basti slum area to facilitate demolitions on December 7. He also accused the railways of floating a tender to demolish the railway camp slum last September.
Dismissing Mr Kejriwal’s allegations as baseless, Union minister Hardeep Puri claimed that the AAP government in Delhi had deliberately delayed Central government schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and other slum rehabilitation projects. “Since 2006, it has been the state government’s duty to regulate unauthorised colonies, but the AAP government did not cooperate,” he said.
Mr Puri also claimed that senior AAP leaders had shown interest in land acquisition without supporting housing projects for slum dwellers.
Mr Kejriwal also claimed that the BJP had constructed only 4,000 houses for slum residents under the Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan scheme, while there are 4 lakh slums in Delhi, suggesting that it will take the saffron party at least a thousand years to provide housing for all these people.
Mr Kejriwal said: “If you vote for the BJP, it will be like signing your own suicide note. The BJP has plans to demolish all the jhuggis in Delhi. They will demolish all the slums within a year of forming a government. I was the one chief minister who woke up all the bureaucrats and reached the spot at midnight to stop the demolition process. I had saved several demolitions as the chief minister.”
Reading out the names of slums that have been demolished, the chief former chief minister said, “I failed to save 3-lakh people’s houses. I am not in politics for money; I am here to serve you. Aap nahi toh me nahi.”
On Saturday, Mr Shah had said: “We said that Ram Mandir will be built in Ayodhya. Arvind Kejriwal used to say that toilets should be built… After a long wait of 500 years, we built Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given houses to more than 3.58 crore poor people in the country. This is Modi Ji’s guarantee and every person living in a slum will be given a permanent house. The toilet in his (Mr Kejriwal’s) Sheesh Mahal is more expensive than the slums.
