Manish Sisodia calls BJP 'party of illiterates'

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday claimed the BJP has started "weaving a new fabricated story" of corruption in the construction of Delhi government schools to target him after the CBI could not find anything against him in the excise policy case.

Addressing a press conference, he also claimed the BJP was bringing up such a “fake story of corruption” under “a conspiracy” to close down all government schools and pave the way for opening of private schools in the national capital.

Sisodia called the BJP a "party of illiterates" and alleged at least 72,000 government schools in the states ruled by the saffron party have been closed in the past seven years to make way for the opening of private schools.

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Sisodia's claims came a day after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena sought a report from the chief secretary over a delay of more than two-and-half years in acting on a Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) report on an inquiry into the construction of additional classrooms in government schools.

The report, which found gross irregularities and procedural lapses in execution of the projects, was sent by the CVC to the vigilance secretary in February 2020, seeking comments for further investigation and action.

“Leaving aside the issue of liquor, they have now started raising a new fabricated story of scam in construction of Delhi government school buildings since yesterday,” Sisodia told the press conference, without referring to the LG's directive to the chief secretary.

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He alleged that the BJP has started making up a “fake story of corruption” in the construction of Delhi government school buildings after “realising that nothing is coming out from the CBI probe in the alleged scam in excise policy.”

Sisodia termed all the allegations of corruption against him as “lies” and alleged it's the BJP's ploy to close down all the government schools in the city to pave the way for the opening of private schools.

"They are doing this under a conspiracy as the Delhi government schools have been providing quality education to its students with a world-class standard of pedagogy, state-of-the-art buildings and other infrastructure,” he claimed.

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The Kejriwal dispensation is being “appreciated” all over the world for transforming the Delhi government schools, he said.

“They are worried that people will start raising questions on their model of education which promotes the opening of private schools if they understand that it is possible to improve the performance of government schools and make them better than the private schools...They want to ruin the country,” Sisodia added.

The deputy chief minister said the BJP can get the CBI conduct another raid at his residence if it wants to do so but the Aam Aadmi Party will not let the saffron party "shut a single school in Delhi”.

“I am not scared of raids and cases,” he said.

Citing government data, Sisodia said that at least 72,000 government schools have been closed in the BJP-ruled states in the last seven years to make way for 12,000 private schools, while the Kejriwal government built 700 new school buildings in the national capital since 2015.

"BJP worked on a mission mode to shut government schools. As many as 51,000 schools were shut between September 2018-September 2019 itself,” he claimed.

He said the Delhi government has spent money on providing schools with state-of-the-art buildings and other infrastructure.

“Cost will increase when you spend money on building amazing schools with good tiles, good desks and washrooms. It is the government's responsibility to provide good schools to children,” he said.