Kejriwal got Olympic gold in promising freebies: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri

KOCHI: Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Friday targeted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with a snappy wisecrack that the AAP national convener has got “Olympic gold medal in promising freebies”.

The issue of freebies has been of late the matter of a tug-of-war between the BJP and its opposition, especially the Aam Aadmi Party.

Interacting with reporters on the sidelines of ‘The Urban Mobility India Conference and Expo’ here, Puri quipped, “Mr Kejriwal got the gold medal at the last Olympics for promising freebies.”

In July this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cautioned people against what he called was a “revadi culture” of offering freebies for winning votes.

Kejriwal has maintained that his government’s schemes for free education, healthcare and electricity were not “freebies” but efforts to lay the foundation for making India the number one country in the world.

On Friday, Puri said the Aam Aadmi Party leader was demanding free travel on the Delhi Metro.

“What is the argument he (Kejriwal) gives — you make the metro (travel) free, you prevent pollution since instead of 65 lakh people 90 lakh people will travel (on it) and everybody will be happy,” he said.

This is one set of arguments. Luckily, Kejriwal doesn’t have to run the Delhi Metro as the Delhi government is only responsible for the 50 per cent share of funding, the Union minister said.

“How did the Delhi Metro start? We took a loan of Rs 27,000 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the loan has to be paid back.

“Because we are paying the loan back, I was able to expand the Delhi Metro in the national capital region. It (Metro) is now running at 390 kilometres… what he (Kejriwal) does with something which is under him?” Puri said.

The Union minister also hit out at Kejriwal for the alleged depleting bus fleet of the Delhi Transport Corporation.

“Before every election, he comes around and says I am getting new buses,” he said and claimed that the bus fleet has gone down from 11,000 to 3,000.

“Most of these buses are also not functioning. Why? Because you (the AAP government) don’t have money to spare,” Puri alleged.

In October, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party wanted Delhi to be ‘AAP Nirbhar’ while the BJP wanted the city to be Aatmanirbhar and asked people to choose between the two in the MCD elections. (PTI)