Rohingyas, Sheeshmahal & The Delhi Model: Election Talk with AAP's Jasmine Shah
On 'Badi Badi Baatein', AAP's Jasmine Shah discusses the Delhi Model, election narratives, and controversies.
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Video Editor: Nitin Bisht
Is the Delhi governance model, that the Aam Aadmi Party propagating so fiercely ahead of this upcoming Assembly election, the only poll plank of the party as it claims?
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is either driving or tackling several other narratives on war footing, including voter list rigging, Rohingya refugees, and 'Sheeshmahal'.
On this episode of 'Badi Badi Baatein', AAP leader Jasmine Shah talks about his book 'The Delhi Model', the narratives, and the controversies being tackled by the party ahead of the elections.
Every party or politician likes to talk about a particular model of development. The Delhi model has been well popularised by the Aam Aadmi Party over the past decade, in terms of health care, schooling, etc. Why the need to write the book now when elections are around the corner? Was it a coincidence?
Not really, I would say. I believe that any serious development model needs to show lasting change over a longer period of time.
The AAP government has now finished about ten years in Delhi. And back in 2015 when AAP came to power, I remember with the mandate of 67 out of 70 seats and I was outside. I was not part of AAP at that point in time. People across Delhi as well as India were looking forward to what is this party, completely newcomer to Indian politics and with this kind of a mandate - what different will they do when in power?
Ten years is a substantial period to step back and take stock of what has really changed, what has not changed.
I believe this is a good time for people also to objectively assess key works. And I hope this at least initiates informed discussions about the true contribution and work of Aam Aadmi Party.
There is a lot of comparison in the book with the Gujarat model, along with data. It speaks in detail about how the Gujrat model has done better on a lot of fronts, but not necessarily on social indices like health care, education, etc. But why this specific comparison with the Gujarat model and not any other model?
The last time the country heard of a state-led model was a great model. The reason the Gujarat model is relevant, a discussion on that is relevant today, is because policies of the Modi government at the Center are a distinct imprint of what he was doing in Gujarat.
So, the Gujarat model wants and chases only one parameter, which is the headline GDP growth - the state economy is a growing so don't ask questions whether our children are being educated well or whether people are healthy, etc.
If you look at the average wages, Gujarat today ranks 19 out of 20 states. Gujarat has consistently been spending the least fraction of its budget on health and education amongst all Indian states. The Human Development Index, which is an overall measure of the well-being, Gujarat ranks 21 out of 28 states.
Delhi model's entire focus is on investing in human capital. Over the last ten years, Delhi's GDP growth has been at par with the rest of India. Delhi has the lowest inflation in the country today, which is 2.2%, it's less than half of national average. Delhi has amongst the lowest unemployment rates in the country. We rank today number one in Human Development Index. Delhi has possibly the best government schooling system and healthcare system.
So, that is why I believe the Delhi model stands as a distinctly different model than the Gujarat model. And the country is going down the Gujarat model, because that is what we seem to be doing at the national level.
Are you sure the comparison with the Gujarat model is not to further propagate the narrative that the AAP is the only probable opponent to the BJP in the country?
There is no doubt about that fact. The BJP itself believes that AAP is a strong opponent. Never in the history of India has a national political party like AAP faced a scenario where all four top leaders are sent to jail in a fake case. So, the BJP definitely does feel the threat of Aam Aadmi party.
For the past few Union Budgets, the middle class has been feeling the heat, specifically with taxation, etc. How does Delhi's middle class fare differently than the general middle class of India under the Delhi model?
First of all, I think you are right. The fact that India's middle class has been feeling the heat is because this is the idea of the Gujarat model. Gujarat model is giving lavish incentives and relief only to the rich industrialists and corporates. In the Delhi model, we have done a lot of things for the middle class. Delhi's inflation is at around 2.2% while India's inflation is at around 4.8%.
Free electricity is for 70 percentage of the population. Electricity for another 20 percentage is highly subsidised. So, middle class falls under that 90%. Water is free for around 60 percentage of the population.
Mohalla Clinics - people go to tertiary care which is free. We have the Farishte Scheme for accidents.
Those who talk about the freebies and unfairly target the AAP model, they forget that the money that we are giving as freebies in terms of benefits to the poor and the middle classes is after we have made investments in infrastructure. In Delhi, over the last ten years, we have built around 38 flyovers. In the 65 years before that, 62 flyovers were built.
So, you can see the rate at which we have expanded Delhi's infrastructure. The Delhi Metro network has doubled in the last ten years, the earlier metro network took 17 years. We have brought 2000 electric busses. These are all contributing to lower pollution and help environment.
We have four lakh CCTV cameras installed in Delhi which is the highest density of CCTV cameras anywhere in the world. We have installed four lakh streetlights. So, we spent a lot on infrastructure. The final element I would say is corruption. One of the biggest reasons why the middle class is cynical of politicians and government is because they think everyone is corrupt. Aam Aadmi Party's birth was out of an anti-corruption movement.
And very interestingly, the moment we came to power, the the anti-corruption branch was snatched away from us, the Lokpal Bill was stalled by the Center. But what we did after that is something that the middle class in Delhi only experiences.
But, along with popularising the Delhi model, the Aam Aadmi party has also been running certain narratives on the ground ahead of the elections. First is the narrative of voter list rigging. We all saw the press conferences where Mr Kejriwal came out in the open, alleged, attempts to rig voter lists. The party also gave out data from Shahadara. Recently, chief minister Atishi wrote to the Election Commission making similar claims from the New Delhi constituency which is Mr Kejriwal's constituency. But after the data from Shahdara, the party has not really come out with another set of data. Why so?
No, we have. Shahdara is a classic case of what we see BJP stooping down to when it feels that on the track record of work, or on the track record of promises, it does not want to compete with Aam Aadmi Party.
What do you do? You indulge in voter list manipulation. Shahadara is a classic example. Here's a constituency that Aam Aadmi party won last time by 5000 votes. In Shahdara, we found over the course of just 2-3 weeks that applications have been put by one or two BJP people to delete 11,000 names in the voter list, a constituency where margin was 5000.
One person from BJP on his official letterhead is saying to delete these eleven thousand names from the voter list. These names were never put on the website of ECI as was required.
But what is happening in New Delhi constituency is far more sinister. Mr. Arvind Kejriwal's constituency has total around one lakh voters. In the last two weeks, applications were put for deletion of around 6,000 votes by 85 objectors. One has put 100 or someone has put 500 names.
Election Commission invited all of them for a personal hearing. Aam Aadmi Party was present. Out of these 85 people, only 11 people showed up because the letters were sent individually to these people. All 11 people said that we didn't put any applications, we don't know who has put in our name. Isn't this one of the biggest electoral scams in Indian history?
So we ask the Election Commission then and there to stall this entire process, do not act upon it. What did the Election Commission say? - "We do not have any rule in our rule book and we will continue with deletion process." Not that we will go and do an investigation on who are these people who did this fraud. That is where I feel that the entire electoral machinery today in Delhi is operating under some fear.
It is the job of Aam Aadmi Party and the media to raise it and put the pressure on ECI to do course correction.
The district election officer has come out with claims that the Aam Aadmi Party has been pressurising officials. He has named several senior party leaders including Mr Sanjay Singh, Mr Raghav Chadha and alleged that they have been going to the offices and pressurising them. How would you respond to that?
So, the moment this fraud was caught, AAP leaders including Mr. Sanjay Singh and Mr. Raghav Chadha went to the district election officer and said exactly this - that you accept that in your presence, 11 out of the 83-85 people came and said that we didn't do this, so carry out an investigation. But he said that this is not possible. This was the response. They were being completely evasive.
So, we said that wait for the other 85, don't act on this because there is a process, stall the process, call these 85 people and do phone verification in our presence. He said I can't do this because it's not possible. Each and every answer was elusive. So, what did our leaders do? We went and we exposed this in the media. The Election Commission of India comes in the New Delhi constituency. You are claiming to run the nations electoral system while there are open electoral frauds happening in the New Delhi Constituuency. Can you stop it?
Along with deletion of voters, the Aam Aadmi Party has also been running the narrative of addition of Rohingyas in Delhi by the BJP. Do you really expect the voters of Delhi to believe that the Bharatiya Janata Party is actually bringing in Rohingya refugees to Delhi and settling them in colonies? Basically what proof does the Aam Aadmi party have to claim this?
I'm glad you asked this question because one needs to clear the air on this. The entire debate on Rohingyas always happens a few months before the elections. Who is the first to start it? The Bharatiya Janata Party. This time also, around one month ago, their leaders started saying the Rohingyas have started coming in numbers and Aam Aadmi Party is settling them. So, we asked a simple question - If Rohingyas have arrived in Delhi, they didn't come via rocket from Myanmar and Bangladesh, they have come by crossing the borders. The Border Security Force comes under the Home minister and the Defense minister. Who looks at the law and order in Delhi? It is Amit Shah. Go to Union Minister Hardeep Puri's Twitter. On 17 August, 2022, he actually tweeted saying that under the policy of Prime Minister Narendra modi, we are settling Rohingyas in Delhi and all of them are being given EWS flats in Bakerwala which is in outer Delhi, and we are providing them round the clock security. So, once we countered them, I think BJP has now forgotten about Rohingyas.
But Mr Hardeep Singh Puri also came out with clarifications on the same day that these are not flats that are being given from the DDA, but they are actually the same refugee camps.
But they accepted, right? That's precisely my point. Here's a Union Minister claiming it and that tweet still stands. Now, you are coming in saying that Kejriwal is responsible for doing it. I mean, it is complete nonsense
But the AAP is claiming that the BJP is bringing Rohingyas into Delhi. Does the party stand on that statement?
Absolutely, the party stands by that claim!
But what do you think they seem to achieve by bringing them to Delhi?
I believe, whenever Bharatiya Janata Party contests an election, their number one agenda is communal polarisation. Have you ever heard the BJP talk about anything? Delhi is a half state, right? We have a lot of responsibilities like health, education, electricity and water.
What is the number one responsibility that the central government has in Delhi? Law and order. Everybody knows what's the track record.
The BJP wants to run away from talking about its work, its actual contribution to Delhi, and that is why they will bring these kind of topics. This is just the start. The lections have been just announced, you will see there is more to come. They will talk about anything and everything except work.
There is another very big narrative battle going on about the renovation of the Chief Minister's residence. Just two days before we are recording this, the CAG has come up with a report with certain findings on the renovation - Sheer and main curtains for rupees 96 lakh, kitchen equipment for Rs 39 lakhs, TV console for over Rs 20 lakh, treadmill and gym equipment for over Rs 18 lakh, silk carpet for over Rs 16 lakh. Now, the 'Sheeshmahal' narrative that the BJP has been going around with does not just remain a narrative after these figures, after this report. How would you respond to these figures and this report as the Aam Aadmi Party?
I believe this is nothing but a huge diversionary tactic by the BJP. And the reason I say that is because, let's understand what is this chief minister's house is. The Delhi chief minister never had an official residence. For the first time in official CM residence, there was a complex created which has conference rooms, meetings rooms, security, and dining. There was a complex, not a house.
But if you look at the comparison of how much the Prime Minister of India is spending... The Prime Minister of India has always had a residence in Delhi. In the renovation of the official Prime Minister residence, PM Modi has spent 2700 crores. This is a reality. He has bought an aircraft which is Rs 8,400 crores.
They said there is a swimming pool in the 'Sheeshmahal', they said there are gold toilets. We challenged the BJP to come along with us and the media and visit the CM residence, show us where the swimming pool is. Because some numbers have come out, but lot of untruths and falsehoods are also being propagated. We also said we will visit the CM residence, but we will visit the PM residence after.
But it's not about the comparison of numbers. Eventually, when figures like these come out, people see it as public money - be it Rs 96 lakh on curtains or Rs 20 lakh on TV console.
No, i would like to question the sanctity of these numbers. First of all, this is apparently a leak of some CAG report. The report has not come out yet. And who leaked this? The BJP did, photos were also leaked by the BJP. It is a very convenient narrative.
So, you do question the figures?
I do question the validity of the figures. I also question this blatant falsehoods being put out. For two years they put a lot of our leaders in jail. Eventually everybody got bail. Not just that, when the Supreme Court gave bail to Mr Kejriwal, two things it said - first that this seems to be a biased investigation. Second, that you are using the CBI and the ED as a caged parrot. Now, the excise policy has gone into cold storage. Same is with the 'Sheeshmahal', these are constructed narratives. Why? Because the BJP can avoid any scrutiny of what it is doing for the people of Delhi.
The official stand now is to look at these figures with doubt?
Look at these figures with doubt, look at the entire narrative around this with doubt.
Will Mr Kejriwal return as the Chief Minister if the AAP wins?
We just launched our official campaign song and it's called "Phir layenge Kejriwal". The entire campaign is to bring Mr Kejriwal again to become the Chief Minister of Delhi.