Sibal says BJP failed to provide clean air, water despite being in power for 11 years

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Saturday slammed the BJP for failing to provide clean air and water to people despite being in power for over 11 years.

Addressing a press conference here, he referred to the recent water contamination deaths in Indore and the rising air pollution in the national capital and said the BJP government at the Centre hasn't adopted any concrete policy to tackle the two crucial issues concerning people's health.

The government has also not focussed on improving education and health standards, rather it is fixated on cleaning the electoral rolls, Sibal said.

"It seems the Election Commission is indulging in partiality and whenever anyone in the opposition raises an issue, the Election Commission turns against it," he noted.

The former Union minister said everyone needs air clean air and water. "They are the two basic needs of every person." There are two other things that people want in life and these are education and health which have also not been taken care of, he noted.

"Over the past 25 years, both BJP and UPA governments have ruled, but pollution in Delhi has kept rising and there has been little effective policy. Have they evolved a policy - zero - in the last 11 years the BJP has been in power," he told reporters.

Sibal said the Indore incident involving deaths allegedly due to contaminated water shows the lack of response from the BJP government which is in power both at the Centre and in the state.

Delhi needs the Aravallis for water but they are "trying to destroy" them too, he alleged.

"The Aravallis are being threatened, schemes like ‘har ghar nal se jal’ have not delivered on the ground, and the country is facing unrest and violence. I question what kind of India is being created when these basic human needs are not being ensured," the Independent MP said.

Sibal also criticised the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over alleged cases of vandalism during Christmas.

On the one side, the PM goes to church on the occasion of Christmas, while on the other, "people of Bajrang Dal are attacking Christians during Christmas", he said.

Sibal said the state of affairs in the country are such that industrialists are becoming land owners and "zamindars" while the common people are getting nothing.

He recalled how the Congress government of Jawaharlal Nehru abolished the Zamindari system and made common people land owners, and added that the "opposite is happening now".