In yet another damning indictment of the BJP’s politics of deception, the demolition of 800 jhuggis in Delhi’s Madrasi Camp has exposed the hollowness of the ruling party’s much-touted promise—“Jahan jhuggi, wahan makan.” Just 24 hours after Delhi’s BJP Chief Minister Rekha Gupta publicly vowed that no ‘jhuggi’ would be razed, bulldozers rolled in under government protection, reducing hundreds of homes to rubble.
Senior AAP leader and Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj has slammed the BJP for betraying Delhi’s poorest, charging it with staging pre-election theatrics in jhuggi clusters—posing for photo-ops, distributing fake guarantee cards, and making lofty housing promises—only to discard those very families once their votes were secured.
Addressing a press conference, senior AAP leader and Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “On Saturday, May 31, the BJP organised an event to mark 100 days of its government in Delhi, where CM Rekha Gupta stated clearly that not a single jhuggi will be touched. But the very next day, on June 1, around 800 jhuggis in Madrasai Camp were razed to the ground using dozens of bulldozers. This is the same camp where BJP’s Assembly candidate had distributed cards during the elections and assured all residents that the BJP would ensure ‘jahan jhuggi, wahin makaan’—a house at the same location.”
The AAP Delhi State President called out the BJP’s double standards and betrayal of the poor. “There has always been a gap between what the BJP says and what it does, and they’ve proven it again. Before the elections, they promised permanent housing to these jhuggi dwellers. Now that they are in power, they are sending bulldozers to demolish their homes instead of fulfilling that promise. These are poor families who survive on daily labour. Even they weren’t spared. The BJP has deceived them.”
He further exposed BJP’s theatrics during the election campaign: “Ahead of polls, BJP leaders pretended to care for the urban poor. Their Delhi President Virendra Sachdeva was seen playing carrom with children in jhuggis, others were organising religious events and sharing meals with the poor. These stunts were covered by major newspapers and broadcast on TV news channels. But now, with BJP in power both in Delhi and at the Centre, their promise of ‘jhuggi ke badle makaan’ has been discarded, and the same jhuggis are being razed.”
He added, “For the first time, we are witnessing a government that rules both the state and the Centre, actively destroying the credibility of the Prime Minister’s own promise. The BJP is contradicting its own words, and betraying the most vulnerable.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj stressed that this is not an isolated incident. “Jhuggis are being demolished across Delhi. Even as I address this press conference, dozens of bulldozers are razing jhuggis in the Wazirpur area. The BJP’s actions show that they want to rob the poor not just of shelter but also of their livelihood.”
The AAP Delhi Unit Chief concluded with a sharp indictment of media silence: “It is shocking and shameful that such brutal attacks on poor jhuggi residents by the BJP government are not even being reported by the media. This silence is disturbing and deeply troubling.”
