Oppn unites in criticism, calls it a gimmick

New Delhi: The Opposition parties on Sunday accused chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of wasteful expenditure, with both the BJP and the Congress claiming that the CM was using “gimmicks” to fulfil his “national ambitions”.
Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said: “It was not an interactive session. It was about self-glorification. He just wanted people to listen to him.” BJP functionaries claimed that the decision to organise such a show indicated that the government had realised that people had lost faith in it.
Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, Vijender Gupta, said: “It just shows that their advertisements have failed to make an impact on people.The government should have spent the money on improving the infrastructure to solve the problem of waterlogging, instead of wasting it on shows and promotion of the government.”
The Congress, too, hit out at the CM, with Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken saying: “The show was full of lies. He spoke about the government saving crores of rupees on the construction of flyovers. The fact is that a ‘majority of the work on the flyovers was completed even before this government took over. How can they take credit?”
Maken added that while Kejriwal claimed that funds for education and health had been doubled, he didn’t say anything about how much money had been spent so far.
The show, the Opposition parties said, was started with an eye on poll-bound states. “This was an exercise to fulfil his (Kejriwal) national ambitions,” said Maken. Speaking in the same vein, Upadhyay claimed that the show was “being run to influence the people of Punjab, Goa and Gujarat for whom he seemed more worried”.
Vijender Gupta asserted that the people were very disappointed as they were “forced to listen to his (Kejriwal’s) monologue for 48 minutes”. He added: “Now, people know that that he can only hurl abuses and blame the Centre for all the problems.”
Maken, on the other hand, claimed that “if real work was done at the ground level, then there would be no need for such an advertisement”.