Deputy CM's remarks come in response to L-G's letter to Kejriwal faulting the AAP's education model; CM had responded ‘sun and the moon look good only when they do their own jobs.’
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday said Lieutenant-GovernorV.K. Saxena hasdefamed the city's education system by resorting to ‘false’ claims and asked him to instead focus on the city's law and order situation rather than ‘ridiculing’ teachers.
His comments, in a letter to the L-G, came in response to a letter the latter had sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday addressing what he called ‘substantially misleading, untrue and derogatory’ charges hurled by Mr. Kejriwal. The L-G in his letter also dwelt on the problems he perceived with the city's education model. Responding to his letter, Mr. Kejriwal had said, ‘The sun and the moon look good only when they do their own jobs. Let the Chief Minister do his job, please look after your responsibility.’
The L-G and the AAP government have been embroiled in a war of words with the latter accusing Mr. Saxena of bypassing the elected government and issuing orders on matters that are not under his control. In the recently concluded Assembly session, the AAP government levelled several allegations against the L-G.
Joining issue on Saturday, Mr. Sisodia in his letter rejected the L-G's contention that the number of students in government schools of Delhi has decreased from 16 lakh to 15 lakh. ‘The reality is that in the year 2015-16 [in the first year of formation of our government, the number of students in Delhi government schools was 14,66,000, which has now increased to 18 lakh,’ the Deputy CM said.
The Education Minister said the L-G might not be aware that previously, hardly 75% to 80% students of the Delhi government schools used to pass the board exams, but now 99.6% students are passing the exam.
'Didn't meet leaders'
Meanwhile, a meeting of the L-G and AAP MLAs, including Mr. Kejriwal, did not happen on Saturday. The Chief Minister had on Friday sought time from the L-G to meet at 1 p.m. with the AAP MLAs. The L-G refused to meet them, according to AAP sources.
When contacted, the L-G's office did not respond to Mr. Sisodia's letter and the allegation that the L-G refused to meet the AAP leaders. However, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the CM has a fixed weekly meeting with Mr. Saxena which he himself skips to create political propaganda. ‘The kind of words AAP leaders have been addressing the L-G with, how can they expect him to meet them without proper appointment?’ he said.
Referring to the L-G's letter to Mr.
Kejriwal, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj called Mr. Saxena's remarks on the education system ‘lies’ and challenged him to a competition between the L-G's children and students of the Delhi government schools on any subject.
He alleged that the L-G is forcing newspapers to publish false claims in order to defame the elected government and its 18 lakh students.
