BJP accuses Kejriwal of using children for his ‘cheap, dirty’ politics

PTI, Dec 31, 2024, 1:16 PM IST

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday accused Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal of using children for political gains, charging him with practising “petty, cheap and dirty” politics.

Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said Delhi’s ruling party has not taken down a post, which shows some children raising pro-Kejriwal slogans, despite the National Human Rights Commission raising serious concerns on the matter.

Such a depiction of children is a violation of the Juvenile Act and the Election Commission guidelines, he said.

“Kejriwal and Chief Minister Atishi are not sparing even children. They are violating the dignity of children. Is it because Kejriwal knows that he is losing the elections in Delhi,” Bhatia asked.

He asked why Kejriwal was “playing with young and impressionable minds for his petty, cheap and dirty politics”.

The BJP, he claimed, will ensure that the “destroyer of children and a hater of children” is thrown out of power. He accused the AAP government of converting school toilets into classrooms for children and deliberately failing students in Class 9 and Class 11 to ensure higher pass percentages in Class 10 and Class 12.

He added that people will celebrate “Happiness Utsav” — a Delhi government initiative to commemorate the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ in its schools — by teaching the AAP a lesson in the upcoming polls.

The AAP government opened no new school despite promising over 500 of them, and is behind the vacancy of almost 80 per cent post of teachers, he alleged.

Bhatia dubbed Kejriwal’s announcement of Rs 18,000 monthly honorarium to temple and gurudwara priests as yet another “false promise” by the AAP, claiming the former chief minister knows that his “political life” is coming to an end.

Until recently his government was opening liquor shops outside religious places, he said.

The BJP spokesperson noted that the AAP government has also promised a similar amount to imams but has not paid them for 17 months. “There has been no bigger fraud and deceitful politician in India than him,” he alleged.

Asked about the Congress’ charge that the BJP government at the Centre has disrespected former prime minister Manmohan Singh, the BJP leader hit back at the opposition party’s “insult” of former PM P V Narasimha Rao, saying it did not even allow his cremation in the national capital.

There has been a bitter war of words between the Congress and the ruling BJP over arrangements at Singh’s funeral and over the setting up of a memorial to the ex-PM.