‘If slogans could improve education system…’: Kejriwal’s dig at university event

An attempt to disrupt chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s speech was made at a GGSIPU event to open the new East Delhi campus

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday rebuffed a group of people in the audience who interrupted his speech at an event to open the East Delhi campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) on Thursday, saying that “if slogans could improve the education system, then it would have already improved in the last 70 years”.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s speech during an event to inaugurate GGSIPU’s East Delhi campus was disrupted by some people (Twitter/ArvindKejriwal)

“I appeal to people from both parties to listen for five minutes. If you do not like my speech, then you can go ahead with the sloganeering later,” Kejriwal said after a group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters raised slogans against the city government, prompting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers to also raise slogans against the BJP.

The campus was jointly inaugurated by Kejriwal and Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena Education minister Atishi, BJP MP Gautam Gambhir and local legislator OP Sharma were also present at the occasion.

The new campus in Surajmal Vihar has been built on 19 acres at a cost of ₹388 crore and can accommodate 2,400 students. The main academic block houses the central library, incubation centre, lecture theatre, classrooms, a magnificent auditorium, an indoor sports hall, and a residential complex for students who come from far away places.

An official said the campus has a net-zero energy consumption on account of the solar panels installed on the roof of the academic block and will recycle water for gardening after treatment.

The campus also has an auditorium, an academic block and a sports block, library and a residential hostel block.

The university will offer several engineering courses at the east campus including B.Tech in Automation and Robotics, B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.