‘We don’t do fake Covid-19 tests like you,’ Kejriwal hits out at Yogi

“Yogi ji, the great work on our corona is being discussed in the street mohallas of UP. Like you, we do not do fake corona test. Manish ji is coming to Lucknow to debate on 22 December at the invitation of your minister,” Kejriwal’s tweet, roughly translated from Hindi, read.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday hit out at his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath by saying that the latter only sees the Delhi government and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) whether he wakes up or goes to sleep. Kejriwal also added that the work done by Delhi towards combating the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis was being discussed in every street of UP.

Kejriwal was referring to a news report which stated that fake names were being registered in order to show increased Covid-19 testing in Bareilly. (HT Photo)

“Yogi ji, the great work on our corona is being discussed in the street mohallas of UP. Like you, we do not do fake corona test. Manish ji is coming to Lucknow to debate on 22 December at the invitation of your minister,” Kejriwal’s tweet, roughly translated from Hindi, read.

Kejriwal was referring to a news report which stated that fake names were being registered in order to show increased Covid-19 testing in Bareilly. In one instance, 965 people were registered under a single mobile number which had only zeroes, the report showed.

Meanwhile, Adityanath said UP is the state to have conducted the most number of Covid-19 tests and it has the lowest positivity rate and the lowest mortality rate.

According to the Union health ministry’s dashboard, Uttar Pradesh has registered over 568,064 coronavirus cases till now out of which 8,103 people have died and nearly 542,000 have been cured/discharged.

Earlier in the day, Uttar Pradesh’s primary education minister Satish Dwivedi had invited Kejriwal and Delhi’s deputy CM Manish Sisodia to visit schools in the state after Kejriwal had drawn comparisons between Delhi and UP regarding the work done in the field of education.

“In Delhi, there are 1,024 government schools for Class 1-12. In Uttar Pradesh, there are at least 2,000 schools for Class 1-8 even in the smallest district. I can only feel pity for the intellect of whoever is comparing the state of 1,024 schools with a state of 1.59 lakh schools,” Dwivedi had told news agency ANI. He further alleged that only a few schools in the national capital had smart classes.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s education minister responded to Dwivedi’s invitation and said that he would be visiting Lucknow on December 22 and pitched for an open debate on government schools in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

“Next Tuesday [December 22], I will be in Lucknow. Please let me know where to come for the debate and who to argue with – the chief minister, deputy CM or education minister of UP. Let’s have an open debate on government schools in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh… I have one request, please do not withdraw the challenge now,” Sisodia added.