Six months into Rekha Gupta’s rule, Delhi stands betrayed—bulldozers over jhuggis, jobs of Civil Defence volunteers snatched, Mohalla Clinics dismantled, parents insulted, and doctors assaulted. AAP Delhi Unit President Saurabh Bharadwaj emphasised that Delhiites are fed up with CM Rekha Gupta’s government. From BJP workers raising slogans against her in her own crowd to parents protesting at Ashish Sood’s meeting, the former Delhi Minister said the anger against BJP is now erupting across Delhi.
Addressing a press conference, AAP Delhi Unit President Saurabh Bharadwaj stated, “It is being reported that Delhi CM Rekha Gupta was slapped, or at least an attempt was made to slap her since no CCTV footage has been released by the police. The attempt was made by a man allegedly angry over her orders regarding stray dogs. Later in the day, Rekha Gupta went to Gandhi Nagar with a long police convoy, and videos clearly show markets on both sides shut down. Even there, people protested against her.”
Recalling parents’ anger in Janakpuri, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Just two-three days ago, Rekha Gupta government’s minister Ashish Sood held a town hall with parents of private school children in his Janakpuri constituency. Parents strongly protested against him. Police took away cameras and mobiles, forbade people from recording, yet videos emerged showing parents questioning Ashish Sood, who lost his temper, shouting that since he had invited them, arranged food, and decorated the stage, he would only say what he wanted, not listen to them.”
On MLA Harish Khurana’s misconduct, he added, “Yesterday, Moti Nagar MLA Harish Khurana went to Acharya Bhikshu Hospital and hurled abuses, misbehaved, and even scuffled with junior doctors and interns. Forty-two doctors submitted a written complaint against him. But under government pressure, the hospital MS Dr. Uma was forced not to register an FIR. This is a matter of deep shame.”
Questioning the police cover-up, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “When Rekha Gupta was attacked yesterday, what did the police do? The CCTV footage was seized by the Joint Commissioner so that it does not even reach the SHO or the police station. Every nearby policeman and bystander had their mobile phones confiscated, their passwords written down, their devices searched one by one, and videos deleted. At the same time, Ashish Sood was not allowing recordings of his event, and even the CCTV of yesterday’s abuses has been hidden by the government. The hospital CCTV is also being suppressed. Civil Defence volunteers were also called yesterday—rumours spread that maybe they were involved in the attack, or perhaps it was poor pharmacists and nurses recently thrown out of Mohalla Clinics.”
Attacking the government’s anti-people actions, the AAP Delhi Unit President asserted, “Since the day you formed the government, you have only harassed people. You ran bulldozers over poor, helpless families struggling to earn their livelihood. You never thought where their small children would live after being thrown out, where they would hide from sun and rain, in which school they would study. You destroyed their homes, their work, their livelihoods.”
Highlighting broken promises, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “You promised 10,000 Civil Defence volunteers jobs within 60 days—today they are crying, abandoned. You promised jobs to 2,500 people working in Mohalla Clinics, but are instead shutting clinics one by one and slowly pushing them out. Your government came on February 20, and by March 1, Manjinder Singh Sirsa announced—without any official order—that diesel for vehicles over ten years old would be stopped from March 31. Immediately after your government came, private schools hiked fees. You claimed audits, but not one audit report has been made public, not one rupee of excess fees has been refunded.”
Marking six months of government failure, he said, “From February 20 till today, six months are complete. In these six months, your government has done nothing but make Delhiites’ lives miserable. Rekha Gupta should ask herself why so much public anger has built up against her. We have always said—even if people are angry with a government, they have no right to physically attack any representative, just as Harish Khurana had no right to manhandle doctors.”
“But the real question is—what has this government done in six months that people of Delhi are now so furious, so angry, that Rekha Gupta has to move around in her own city with an entire convoy of cars? I hope this government reflects on this,” concluded the AAP Delhi Unit President.
