New Delhi [India], February 27 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi Assembly on Thursday over the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, accusing the former government of financial mismanagement and misgovernance.
BJP MLA Satish Upadhyay from Malviya Nagar alleged that AAP was attempting to divert attention from the report by invoking Bhagat Singh and BR Ambedkar. He criticized the party for failing to restore a vandalised statue of Bhagat Singh in Malviya Nagar.
"To divert attention from CAG reports, they (AAP) talked about portraits of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh. In Malviya Nagar, there is a park named after Bhagat Singh Ji, where a statue of him installed in the park has remained in vandalised condition for the past three years," said Upadhyay while speaking in the assembly.
"If Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi and their party respected the freedom fighters, they would have got these statutes repaired. But they only used them for politics. Yesterday, we got a cloth cover put on the statue. We will install a new statue or restore this current statue in the next month," he added further.
Later, talking to ANI about the broader discussion over the report in the assembly, Upadhyay said a report on the previous government's shortcomings will come in the next three months, and action will be taken accordingly.
"There was a good discussion on the CAG report; everyone has given their views on it... The shortcomings of the previous government will now be told to the committee, after which a full report will come in 3 months, and action will be taken on it... Our assembly Speaker is working as per the rules, nothing being done in an unconstitutional manner..."
Echoing similar concerns, BJP MLA Kailash Gahlot while talking to ANI emphasized the need for accountability, saying, "There was a discussion held on CAG report today. The Assembly Speaker has announced that the committee will submit its first report within 3 months....If the local residents from there (Najafgarh) want the name to be changed, then there should be no objection and the name should be changed..."
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Shikha Rai described the CAG report as "revealing heart-wrenching facts" that demonstrated how the AAP government "compromised on quality and toyed with people's lives."
Adding to the criticism, BJP MLA Harish Khurana accused AAP of attempting to shift focus away from the issue and said, "The attention of the whole Delhi is on them as to how they committed the scam; they are trying to deflect the issue... The CAG report on liquor scam is just the beginning. There are 12-14 such reports which should be tabled in the House... People will know what the truth is..."
Ahead of the report being tabled in the assembly, BJP MLA Ravindra Singh Negi highlighted the alleged scam in the Delhi liquor policy and said, "The CAG report presented on the liquor policy scam will be discussed in detail in the House today... The scam of around 2000 crores in the liquor policy will be discussed today."
Apart from this, Six-time BJP MLA Mohan Singh Bisht was elected as the deputy speaker of the Delhi Assembly on Thursday.