‘Will pay ₹97 crore when…’: AAP responds to LG Saxena’s recovery order

AAP asked why only the city government was singled out and no questions were asked when other state governments placed advertisements in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday hit back at lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena for his direction to chief secretary Naresh Kumar to recover ₹97 crore spent on advertisements in alleged violation of Supreme Court guidelines, saying the LG didn’t have the power to issue the order.

Delhi lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena being greeted by AAP convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at an event at Raj Nivas in New Delhi on Dec 9 (ANI File Photo)

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the order was designed to pull down the party which recently qualified to be notified as a national party and stressed that the attempt won’t succeed.

“Whatever the LG and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may try, the AAP is unstoppable. It has become a national party. The revival of the old issue is the frustration of the BJP which has been rejected from the MCD and AAP has become a national party despite all their efforts to check our rise,” Bharadwaj told a news conference to articulate his party’s counter to LG Saxena’s order.

In a 10-point order, Saxena ordered the implementation of a 2016 order to recover ₹97 crore from AAP, scrutinise all ads released by the government after August 2019 when a regulation committee set up by former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia started work, require officials to seek project cost of every scheme for which advertisements are to be placed and conduct a special audit of the publicity department.

In response, the AAP leader wondered why only the Arvind Kejriwal-led city government was singled out and no questions were asked when other state governments placed advertisements in Delhi.

“The order is illegal… The order has no legal value. All states ruled by the BJP including Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Goa; and Congress governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have also been publishing advertisements of their schemes in newspapers in Delhi. The combined cost of advertisements placed by BJP-ruled states in Delhi is ₹22,000 crore. When the BJP pays ₹22,000 crore back to the exchequer, we will pay ₹97 crore to the exchequer. LG has no understanding of the law, and no shame,” Bharadwaj said, his party’s counterattack on the BJP and LG.

Bharadwaj cited a portion of the LG’s order where Saxena cites a vigilance report to fault the Kejriwal government, saying it spent ₹16.94 crore on advertisements for a bio-decomposer solution designed to check stubble burning that costs only ₹41.62 lakh.

“A mask costs ₹5 but the advertisements to make people aware of the necessity to wear masks cost crores. Should in that case the cost of masks be increased to ₹1 crore? The logic is baseless and stupid. The logic usually used by BJP spokespersons has found a place in the official letter by the LG,” Bharadwaj said.

The AAP leader said the LG essentially wanted to create hurdles for the city government as part of the BJP’s attempts to defeat the party which was on the rise and had become a national party in just 10 years.