Fifteen Aam Aadmi Party MLAs – including ex-Chief Minister Atishi, who is now Leader of the Opposition – were suspended from the Delhi Assembly, for the day, Tuesday morning in a face-off with the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party over an auditor’s report into the alleged liquor policy scam.
Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai, one of the few high-profile figures to avoid defeat in the February 5 election (party boss Arvind Kejriwal was not so lucky), was also ejected from the Assembly.
The House session was then extended by two days.
Tabled today, the report by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, or CAG, is one of over a dozen alleging corruption by the AAP, which ruled Delhi till the BJP’s election win this month.
Another investigates the ‘sheeshmahal‘ scam, i.e., claims taxpayers’ money was used to refurbish – with luxury fittings – the bungalow Mr Kejriwal occupied when he was Chief Minister. This report has not been tabled as yet.
These allegations have dogged the AAP and Mr Kejriwal – who was jailed for several months, as was his former deputy, Manish Sisodia – in the build-up to the election in which the party was eventually thumped; the BJP won 48 of Delhi’s 70 seats, 37 more than it won in the past two elections combined.
The fracas began with Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s opening address to the Assembly.
AAP MLAs shouted ‘Jai Bhim’ slogans and held up photos of Dr BR Ambedkar to protest the alleged removal of his photographs, and that of Bhagat Singh from the office of the new Chief Minister, Rekha Gupta. These photos, the party said, had been replaced with those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
#WATCH | Delhi: After being suspended from the Legislative Assembly for the whole day, former CM and Delhi LoP Atishi says, “BJP has replaced the portrait of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar with that of PM Modi in the CM office, cabinet ministers office…Is PM Modi bigger than Dr… pic.twitter.com/06yEnlWgOr
— ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2025
The has BJP dismissed this claim and accused the AAP of lying.
READ | No Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh Pics In Offices: Atishi. Don’t Lie, Says BJP
Videos from Ms Gupta’s office, released by the BJP, showed the photos of Dr Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh, which were hung behind the Chief Minister’s desk in the AAP administration, had been shifted to the side walls and replaced with those of Mahatma Gandhi, President Droupadi Murmu, and Mr Modi.
AAP vs BJP Over Ambedkar-PM Photos
Atishi, however, said she would protest till the photos are swapped back.
Led by the former Chief Minister, the ejected MLAs then sat outside the Delhi Assembly to continue their protests, waving placards and shouting slogans against the new BJP government.
AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha raged, “In the Chief Minister’s office, the portrait of Dr BR Ambedkar was replaced with PM Modi… when we asked the Speaker if PM Modi is bigger than Dr Ambedkar, he suspended us… They (BJP) hate Dr Ambedkar, but the country will not accept this…”
The BJP’s Parvesh Verma snapped back at the AAP over the ruckus in the Assembly, declaring his party would expose the “corruption” of the earlier government. “The CAG report we have been waiting for is here… we will uncover the extent of the AAP’s corruption. People of Delhi have been looted…”
Mr Verma – seen as a frontrunner for Chief Minister till Ms Gupta was announced and who defeated Arvind Kejriwal for the New Delhi seat – wasn’t the only Delhi BJP leader to counterattack.
Manjinder Sirsa, Delhi’s Environment Minister, said, “Today the CAG report – which exposed the scams of Kejriwal’s government – will be tabled in the Assembly. 14 such reports will be tabled one by one… Kejriwal kept it hidden for three years because he knew his corruption would be exposed.”
CAG’s Liquor Policy Report
More (more vociferous, certainly) protests are likely when the CAG report on the alleged liquor policy is formally tabled, either later today as the BJP intended or tomorrow.
The report is critical of the policy the AAP announced when Arvind Kejriwal was Chief Minister and says, “actual implementation was sub-optimal and objectives were not achieved”.
In a long list of critical notes, the CAG report says there was “lack of scrutiny of the business entities (to which the AAP government sold liquor licenses) with regards to their financial wherewithal and management expertise”. The report has said “responsibility and accountability should be fixed for lapses observed and enforcement mechanism should be strengthened”.
With input from agencies
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