A damaged statue of Bhagat Singh in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar has sparked yet another round of AAP vs BJP, a day after the Aam Aadmi Party alleged the ruling BJP removed photos of BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from government offices in the national capital. The BJP refuted the allegations.
Today, BJP MLA from Malviya Nagar Satish Upadhyay visited Shaheed Bhagat Singh Park and criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over neglecting a damaged statue of the freedom fighter installed at the park.
The statue has holes at many places and the left palm is also missing.
Mr Upadhyay said the AAP pretends to care about freedom fighters as it did nothing in the last 10 years of its rule in Delhi to repair the Bhagat Singh statue.
"AAP MLA Somnath Bharti was here, but he did not care about the statue of Bhagat Singh," the BJP leader said.
He said the AAP does not care about the legacy of Bhagat Singh, but uses it for vote bank politics.
"If they [AAP] were so concerned, the condition of the park would have been different," Mr Upadhyay said.
He told officials to repair the statue soon.
"Shaheed Bhagat Singh is highly revered by us. We believe in work, not politics," the BJP MLA said.
AAP MLA Atishi yesterday alleged Chief Minister Rekha Gupta removed the photos of BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from every Delhi government office.
"The anti-Dalit mentality of the BJP is well-known. Today, proof of its anti-Dalit mentality has been presented. Arvind Kejriwal put up photos of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh in every office of the Delhi government," Atishi told reporters. "Since the BJP came to power, it removed both photos from the chief minister's office. This shows the BJP is an anti-Dalit, anti-Sikh party."
Another video of Ms Gupta's office, however, shows both the photos of BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh are still there, though hung on two opposite walls. The middle wall which had the two photos when Atishi sat in this office now has the photos of President Droupadi Murmu on the left, Mahatma Gandhi in the centre, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the right.
BJP spokesperson RP Singh told NDTV the AAP is making an issue out of nothing, unable to digest the defeat in the recent assembly election after a run in power for 10 years in the national capital. Mr Singh said the chief minister has got nothing to do with the placement or selection of the photos, as it is the administration's work.
"Ask them [AAP] what pictures were there when they came. The photos of Mahatma Gandhi ji and the Prime Minister were there. People have already rejected and thrown the AAP out. Creating such issues are not going to help them," he said, adding that as per protocol, the pictures of the Prime Minister and the President should be there.
