Private schools in Delhi are operating without checks under the BJP-led government, said AAP’s Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj, highlighting the expulsion of 34 students from DPS Dwarka for not paying hiked fees. Despite a government probe confirming student harassment, no action was taken. The senior AAP leader emphasised the BJP government is shielding private schools and suppressing audit reports, while now not just poor, but even upper-middle-class families face intimidation and injustice.
On the student expulsion, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal took to ‘X’ and wrote, “This was never allowed to happen during AAP time. No school could expel students. AAP govt always stood to protect the students and parents.”
Meanwhile, during a press conference, AAP’s Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj stated, “Everyone knows that ever since the BJP government took over in Delhi, all private schools have arbitrarily increased their fees. When parents protested against this fee hike and AAP raised the issue through press conferences, only then did the BJP government in Delhi wake up from its slumber.”
He continued, “Due to public outrage, the BJP government in Delhi made some hasty and grand announcements. They declared that all private schools in Delhi would be audited by SDMs and that the audit reports would be made public within 15 days. But it’s been much longer than that, and yet the BJP-led Delhi government has failed to release even a single audit report.”
Referring to a specific case, the AAP Delhi State President said, “DPS School in Dwarka kept pressuring children to pay the increased fees and subjected them to harassment. Children whose parents did not pay the increased fees were not allowed to sit in class and were instead made to sit in the library for several days as a form of punishment.”
He shared that the Delhi government had formed a committee under the DM to investigate the matter. The committee, chaired by the DM, submitted a report confirming that DPS Dwarka was indeed harassing students. But this too turned out to be mere drama by the BJP-led Delhi government. Even after receiving the report from the DM, no action was taken against DPS Dwarka.
“As a result of this negligence by the BJP government, the school yesterday struck off the names of 34 children who had refused to pay the increased fees. These children were sent back home straight from the school gate. As soon as they arrived by school bus in the morning, they were told to get back on the bus and return home as their names had been removed from the school rolls,” Saurabh Bharadwaj stated.
Commenting on the broader implications, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “DPS Dwarka is counted among the most expensive schools in Delhi. It caters to children from upper-middle-class families. But today, under BJP rule in Delhi, even these children are being thrown out of schools. Forget the poor—now even upper-middle-class parents are being threatened by schools and their children’s names are being cut.”
He asserted that in the 10 years of Arvind Kejriwal’s government in Delhi, no private school ever dared to increase fees arbitrarily or harass children in such a manner. He emphasised, “This is not just about the 34 students of DPS Dwarka. Nearly every school in Delhi has hiked fees, and parents of children studying in these schools are deeply troubled. Some, in sheer helplessness, have paid the increased fees. Others, who have not, are facing school harassment—where teachers publicly humiliate their children in classrooms by making them stand and insulting them in front of others.”
Raising questions on the promised audits, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “The Education Minister and the Chief Minister had announced that they would audit all private schools. If the audits have been conducted, why have the reports not been made public yet? What action has the Delhi government taken against schools found to be in violation?”
The AAP Delhi State President further questioned, “Why is the BJP government in Delhi hiding these audit reports? Why is it protecting the irregularities of these schools? I want to question the intent of the government—what sort of nexus does the BJP government in Delhi have with these private schools that it is not ready to act against them?”
He added, “This is happening only because the BJP’s Delhi government is hand in glove with private schools. The president of the private school association, Bharat Arora, holds a senior post in the BJP’s Delhi executive committee. When the head of the private school lobby is sitting in the BJP’s Delhi unit, how can one expect the BJP government to take action against these schools?”
He asserted that under BJP rule, things have deteriorated to such an extent that not only were children expelled by DPS Dwarka, but the school also deployed bouncers at the gate to intimidate their parents.
Calling out media silence, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “This is a shameful situation in Delhi, and yet the big English-language newspapers are refusing to report on these events. The children studying in DPS Dwarka and other such schools come from the very same upper-middle-class families who read these English newspapers. These newspapers are not only betraying the people of this country, they are also deceiving their own loyal readers.”
