Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva attacks AAP for 'lies' on pollution

New Delhi, Dec 18 Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of spreading lies and indulging in the politics of deception over the issue of pollution.

Amid recurring protests by the Delhi AAP over air pollution, Sachdeva highlighted what he described as measures taken by the BJP government to combat pollution and blamed the Kejriwal-led Delhi government’s failures for aggravating the Capital’s air quality crisis.

Sachdeva said Kejriwal should first acknowledge that the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels this year are better than in previous years, attributing the improvement to road repair and infrastructure works undertaken by the BJP government in Delhi.

He said that although Kejriwal is generally a master of words, he has now been trapped in the web of his own statements.

"He is now saying that about 15 years ago, pollution in China's capital Beijing was far worse than in Delhi, but the government there took strict measures and brought about improvement," Sachdeva said.

Sachdeva pointed out that Kejriwal himself has admitted that a decade ago Beijing's condition was worse than Delhi's. In such a scenario, he said, Kejriwal -- who ran the Delhi government for the last 11 years -- should explain why the AAP government failed to improve the pollution situation when the Beijing government succeeded during a comparable period.

The Delhi BJP President further said it would have been better if, before commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign visits, Kejriwal had informed the people of Delhi about what 14 out of 22 AAP MLAs -- including Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Atishi and former Environment Minister Gopal Rai—are doing in Goa and Gujarat at a time when Delhiites need their representatives the most.

Meanwhile, the Delhi BJP said in a statement that tasks such as removing garbage mountains, repairing sidewalks, handling e-waste, cleaning the Yamuna and improving road conditions should have been completed by the AAP government during its 11 years in power.

"If the AAP government had done even half of these tasks, the remaining work could have been completed easily. But Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP government did not do even a single task in the last 11 years," the statement said.

The party added that the BJP government in Delhi has been in office for the past nine months.

"From the day after February 20, 2025, the Chief Minister, all ministers and the Lieutenant Governor have been out on Delhi’s roads," it said.

"Pollution is not a problem that arose in one year. It has been increasing in Delhi for years. If Arvind Kejriwal had done even minimal work, the situation would not have deteriorated to this extent. Instead, he misled and deceived the people of Delhi," the statement added.

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