New Delhi:
Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that Haryana’s BJP government has poisoned the Yamuna, has now drawn barbs from Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, who has pointed out that the Aam Aadmi Party chief has failed to deliver on his five-year-old promise of drinking the river water.
“Five years ago, Arvind Kejriwal said that he would take a bath in the Yamuna River and drink the water of the Yamuna river. It has been five years, and to date, Kejriwal ji has not drunk the water of Yamuna,” Mr Gandhi said on a day Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini released a video of himself drinking water straight from the highly polluted river.
“Earlier Arvind Kejriwal used to roam around in the city in a small car, climb electric poles…He said that I would bring clean politics. After that, the biggest scam in Delhi–the liquor scam of crores of rupees, was done by his party, his people,” he said at a rally in Bawana.
“You have to drink dirty water but Kejriwal -ji lives in a ‘sheeshmahal’. He lives in a house worth crores of rupees. He drinks clean water and gives you false statements,” he had added.
Mr Kejriwal’s bizarre claim has drawn fire from the BJP as well as theb Election Commission. The latter has demanded that he backs up his claim with evidence and warned that such comments that can cause rifts between the people and a breach of peace, are a punishable offence.
Days ahead of the assembly election in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal claimed that the BJP was “mixing poison” in the city’s water supply in an attempt to “create chaos… hoping the blame will fall” on his party’s administration.
“The people of Delhi get drinking water from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh… but the Haryana government has mixed poison in the water coming to Delhi from the Yamuna and sent it here… it is only due to the vigilance of our Delhi Jal Board engineers that this water was stopped,” he had said.
In a 57-second video shared widely online, the Haryana Chief Minister is seen at the bank of Yamuna, splashing the water about for a few seconds and then taking a sip.
“I drank the water of the holy Yamuna on the Haryana border. (Delhi Chief Minister) Atishiji did not come. She must be making up a new lie (but) lies have no legs. That is why the lies of AAP-da (the BJP’s new pejorative for the Aam Aadmi Party) are not working,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter..
