The tragic death of 50-year-old Sudhir Kumar – crushed under a large tree that fell on him and his 22-year-old daughter during heavy rain in Delhi Thursday morning – has led to a political blame game between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Aam Aadmi Party.
The national capital was hit by a particularly heavy spell of rain – after a cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district – early this morning, prompting a ‘red’ alert for the day.
There was significant flooding and waterlogging and 65 trees were uprooted, adding to the chaos.
Floods are an unfortunate regular occurrence when it rains in Delhi and always leads to a spat between the ruling party and the opposition, this time the BJP and the AAP.
AAP boss and Arvind Kejrwal fired the first shot. In an X post, in which he shared a video of the Kalkaji tragedy, he slammed the BJP for ‘what it has done to Delhi in just a few months…’
His colleague Atishi then wrote to the Chief Minister, the BJP’s Rekha Gupta, and demanded the resignation of Parvesh Varma, the city’s Public Works Department Minister.
Mr Varma must be held morally accountable, Atishi declared.
“This is not an ‘act of nature’… it is the result of the absolute lack of monsoon-related preparedness by your administration,” she raged, “Many more people have lost their lives in this year’s rains… each a preventable tragedy had there been foresight, infrastructure readiness, and decisive governance…”
And in her posts Atishi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, shared videos of flooded roads and slammed the BJP’s ‘four-engine’ government – a reference to the party controlling the Delhi civic body, the city and federal governments, and the Lieutenant Governor.
The AAP’s Delhi unit boss, ex-MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, also hit out, He accused the Delhi government of having neglected de-silt drains – to minimise floods – as ordered to by a court.
“Gai bhains paani mein, humari car bhi paani mein hai,” he said sarcastically.
The BJP lost no time in responding.
Kapil Sharma, the Tourism Minister in Ms Gupta’s administration, fired a crass jab at Mr Kejriwal, calling him a “shameless person”. “You looted and ruined Delhi for 12 years (when the AAP was in power in the city) … and today you are blaming the BJP for a falling tree?” he said on X.
The sharp attack and counterattack underline continuing rancour between the BJP and the AAP, with past flashpoints including the liquor policy allegations, in which Mr Kejriwal was accused of orchestrating an excise corruption scam of over Rs 2,000 crore and jailed for five months.
The BJP also accused Mr Kejriwal of corruption over refurbishment of the Civil Lines bungalow that was his residence as Chief Minister. The AAP leader was accused of misusing Rs 45 crore of taxpayers’ money for uber-luxurious fittings that, allegedly, included gold-plated bathware.
The AAP and Mr Kejriwal have fiercely rejected both charges, insisting they are the victims of a political conspiracy engineered by the BJP to discredit its rival in the minds of voters.