Manish Sisodia were facing a group of school and college students.
As the Arvind Kejriwal government completes one year in power, NDTV took Deputy CM Manish Sisodia back to the classroom and let the students prepare the government's report card.
The Deputy Chief Minister was subjected to some tough questions by the students of Delhi University and South Delhi's Sarvodaya Vidyalaya. Excerpts from the interview:
What were the government's biggest hit and biggest miss?The biggest hit has been the successful implementation of the odd-even (road rationing scheme to control pollution) and also some education reforms we were able to roll out. The miss would be that we weren't able to complete a lot of projects in time because the BJP through the Lieutenant Governor, stalled a lot of projects.
Did governance suffer due to politics?Delhi is the most mis-governed city in the country. The MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) wants to do its own thing, the Delhi Police wants to sabotage us as well. Modi has been unfair to Delhi, he gave us step-motherly treatment.
Was the 400% salary hike for lawmakers justified?Absolutely. You forget that we are also running families at the end of the day, who have needs. Would you rather have us make corrupt money or have honest salary and serve the people?
What was the biggest disappointment of the last year?When bureaucrats went on strike it was a real disappointment for me. I was really hurt. It wasn't fair that just a day before the implementation of the odd-even plan, they went on mass leave. These people are chosen to serve the country and that should come before any personal demands.
Recently a Congress sting has raised questions over yet another Cabinet Minister. Has the corruption free image of AAP taken a hit?The Congress sting is a political conspiracy... I urge the people to give us authentic proof. We will not think twice before suspending our people but this is a conspiracy and we strongly stand behind our Minister.
Sitting on the Deputy Chief Minister's chair, what has been the toughest thing to do? This is a personal one... the toughest task has been saying NO to my own people for favours. They come to me and say, 'Ab toh CM ban gai ho ek transfer nahi kara sakte'. I have to politely refuse them and then they go back disappointed. That hurts, but we are here to change this kind of politics."