"Don't Feel Bad": Arvind Kejriwal vs Assam's Himanta Sarma Over Schools

Two days after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at the BJP-led Assam government over its schools merger plan, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma yesterday challenged the Aam Aadmi Party chief with data on new schools in his state. Mr Kejriwal, known for his confrontational tone, resorted to diplomatic strategy instead. In line with his transformed temperament since he launched a pitch to "make India number 1" in an attempt to position himself as a national leader, he said he didn't want to point out flaws with the Assam government. 

"We are all one nation. We have to learn from each other. Only then will India become the number one country.

I will come to Assam. Tell me when can I come? You show your good work in the field of education. You come to Delhi, I will show you the progress here," he tweeted in Hindi.

The Assam Chief Minister hit back saying Mr Kejriwal's "ignorance is painful". In a series of tweets, he then explained how the northeastern state is "50 times bigger" than Delhi, has several times more schools, and has to battle region-specific challenges like floods, militancy, and challenging terrain. He added that when the Delhi Chief Minister visits the state 'which he desperately wishes to', he would take him to the state's medical colleges which he claims are "1000 times better than" Delhi's Mohalla Clinics. "And yes, stop worrying about making the country number one, PM Modi is doing that," he said.

The Delhi Chief Minister had earlier commented on Assam's decision to merge schools that had recorded zero pass percentage in class 10 examinations this year with other schools. "Closing schools is not the solution. We just need to open many new schools all over the country. Instead of closing the school, improve the school and make education right," he had said.

Responding to it, Mr Sarma slammed the AAP chief saying, "As usual you commented on something without any homework!"

Listing break-up of data, he said that since his days as Education Minister till now, the Assam government has established/taken over 8610 new schools.

"How many new schools Delhi government has started in last 7 yrs?" he jibed.

Meanwhile, Assam Minister and Mr Biswa's close aide Pijush Hazarika, who had yesterday tried to correct Mr Kejriwal while also accusing him of "destroying" the education quality in Delhi, took another swipe at him citing a media report on the "dropout policy" of the Delhi government. 

"The drop out policy of @ArvindKejriwal ji's World Best Education Model once again came to light as per this report by The Wire. 

Unfortunately in 2017-18, only 3,812 students were readmitted out of 42,503 students who couldn't clear Class X exams," he tweeted.

34 government or government-aided schools and another 57 venture schools that had zero pass percentage have already been shortlisted to be shut down or merged with other schools, officials have said.