Delhi CM Rekha Gupta has hit out at AAP MLA Anil Jha Vats over a video purportedly showing him sitting in his undergarments while signing papers for constituents.
The minister from Kirari in northwest Delhi is seen in the video wearing a vest and shorts and sitting cross-legged on a chair, with a saffron cloth draped across his lap. The video was reportedly recorded while he was signing application forms from constituents, including women, for the Delhi government’s financial assistance scheme.
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Reacting to the video in the Delhi Assembly, Gupta criticised Vats for his attire and conduct, saying an MLA should behave appropriately, particularly when women approach him for official work.
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to the video in the Delhi Assembly, Gupta criticised Vats for his attire and conduct, saying an MLA should behave appropriately, particularly when women approach him for official work.
{{/usCountry}}"Your behaviour is shameful. You should at least dress properly when women come to you to get their papers signed," the CM said. Gupta also demanded that Vats' Assembly membership be cancelled over the incident.
"This sort of indecent behaviour from an MLA cannot be tolerated. His Assembly membership should be cancelled," Gupta demanded amid protests from AAP MLAs.
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Gupta accuses Vats of making obscene gestures
During the Assembly session, Gupta also accused the AAP MLA of making obscene gestures and demanded action against him.
"Women are coming to get signatures; you have to wear clothes, then sit down. You have to put some clothes on. The women of Delhi are questioning you; you should be ashamed," Gupta said. "Please watch the recording. This is not the way an MLA should behave here," she added.
She also accused the previous AAP government of financial irregularities, saying, "Thousands of crores of rupees of Delhi were looted. You people owe Delhi an answer."
Vats, though, has denied Gupta's allegation about making gestures and demanded that she produce video evidence.
"She should show the video of me making any wrong gestures. She doesn't have answers on people's problems, so she is making all these allegations," Vats later said in the Assembly.
AAP alleges rice scam in Delhi
Earlier in the day, AAP MLAs staged a protest in the Delhi Assembly. They carried rice sacks and accused the BJP government of diverting subsidised rice meant for the city’s poor to a private company in Haryana.
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AAP legislators raised slogans including, "Gareeb ka chawal kahan gaya?" (Where did the rice of the poor go?)
AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that subsidised rice meant for poor and migrant residents of the national capital was instead "black-marketed" to a private company in Haryana.
Bharadwaj also alleged that "crores of rupees were earned as illegal commission" and said AAP MLAs had demanded the resignation of Delhi food and civil supplies minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
According to Bharadwaj, the Delhi government and an Assam-based corporation had made a formal request to the Food Corporation of India for subsidised rice to be distributed among poor and needy people in Delhi.
He claimed that under the arrangement, around 31,000 metric tonnes of rice per week were sought. However, Bharadwaj alleged that the rice never reached its intended beneficiaries and was subsequently sold to a private company in Haryana.