Centre wants to demolish all slums in Delhi, alleges AAP; BJP hits back
New Delhi, Jan 12: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged on Friday that the BJP-led Centre wants to demolish all slums in Delhi.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi cabinet ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj said slums in the national capital are being demolished "in an inhuman manner", without rehabilitating the affected slum dwellers.
Atishi alleged that at a meeting on January 9, the Centre directed land-owning agencies, such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), to clear all slum clusters in the city.
Atishi said whenever elections are held in Delhi, be it for the Lok Sabha, Assembly or the MCD, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) makes a promise to slum dwellers that it will build houses for them wherever they are residing. Before every election, the BJP releases advertisements in this regard, the leaders of the party go to the slums and fill up forms, promising houses for each slum dweller, she added.
The AAP leader said just before the MCD polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had distributed some 500 flats to people in Kalkaji and the BJP released a full-page newspaper advertisement, saying each slum dweller in Delhi would be given a house within a five-kilometre radius of their current residences.
"Soon after the election, the prime minister handed the keys to the flats in a housing complex to people, while the BJP-governed DDA ordered the demolition of the slums adjacent to that complex," she alleged.
Atishi claimed that after elections, the BJP either demolishes slums, relocates the affected slum dwellers to footpaths or sends them to places 50 kilometres away, where there are no jobs for them, no schools for their children and no means of transportation.
"The BJP-led central government is conspiring to completely remove slums from Delhi under a conspiracy in a systematic way," the Delhi minister alleged.
Echoing similar views, Bharadwaj alleged that the Centre is demolishing jhuggi jhopri (JJ) colonies under a conspiracy.
He said it is the duty of the land-owning agencies to rehabilitate the slum dwellers.
Bharadwaj said some notified JJ clusters were removed despite court orders.
He added that in the last couple of years, most of the demolition drives were carried out on land belonging to the Centre, despite a clear-cut policy available in the matter. Hundreds of schoolgoing children and women involved in odd jobs have become homeless due to these demolitions, he added.
The AAP leader said before the G20 Summit, a JJ colony at Dhaula Kuan was demolished despite the deputy chief minister's orders to the contrary.
Reacting to the allegations, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva accused the AAP government in Delhi of not allowing the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in the national capital and not allotting around 50,000 Rajiv Awas houses that have already been constructed to the urban poor, denying them an opportunity for a better life.
Sachdeva said that for the sake of political survival, the AAP is raising issues for which it itself is responsible.
"The DDA, on the instructions of the Centre, has implemented 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan' projects at three places in Delhi, but the city government has not implemented the scheme at a jhuggi cluster on one of its land," he added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
