The political war of words over the air pollution crisis in Delhi drags on. The air quality in the national capital slightly improved on Friday but remains in the "poor category." A day earlier, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit out at Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena after he wrote a letter to AAP's national convener and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In the letter, LG Saxena said he addressed the pollution before Kejriwal when he was the CM, but his (Saxena's) concerns were dismissed. According to Saxena, Kejriwal said, "Sir, this happens every year. The media raises it for 15-20 days. Activists and the courts make it an issue, and then everyone forgets. You too should not pay much attention to it."
The "Ghajini" Poster By AAP
The AAP hit back at Saxena's letter, accusing him of passing the buck instead of fixing the ongoing pollution crisis in Delhi. In a cinematic taunt, the party shared an edited image of the LG on X on Thursday.
The photo shows Saxena's face edited into a poster of the Aamir Khan starrer "Ghajini," where the character suffers from short-term memory loss. The AAP said that Saxena is forgetting that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the ruling government in Delhi and fixing the pollution crisis is its accountability.
"L - Low Quality; G - Ghajini," the AAP's post read. The edited image showed Saxena's face morphed into the character's body with tattoos reading "Kejriwal is responsible, Pollution in 2025, AQI (Air Quality Index) at 750.
The poster read, "Delhi's LG has become Ghajini."
BJP Retorts: "Put Kejriwal's Photo"
The BJP has sharply reacted to the poster shared by AAP. Speaking to NDTV, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, "We are accountable for the current pollution crisis. But are we also accountable for the sins that were committed (by the AAP) in the last 12 years? Who is responsible for the air pollution crisis?"
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Echoing remarks from Saxena's letter to Arvind Kejriwal, Sachdeva said, "When LG Saxena talked about pollution, then CM Arvind Kejriwal would say that this (air pollution crisis) is an issue of 15-20 days, the media will raise it, some activists will go to court, and then this issue will be finished, and there is no need to work on it."
Saxena added that Kejriwal is responsible for the degrading AQI in Delhi.
Talking about the Ghajini poster, the Delhi BJP chief said, "The movie character has a habit of forgetting. If someone has forgotten Delhi after a disappointing defeat in polls, it is the AAP. The AAP should have put Kejriwal's photo in the poster, who forgot about Delhi and fled away from his responsibility."
"The current government is not running from its responsibility. We are taking steps to combat pollution. What did you (AAP) do for the last 12 years? Pollution is not a two-month-long problem. It is a year-round problem. And you (AAP) are trying to fix the accountability of the new government, which has been in power for only the last 9-10 months? Are we accountable for your sins?" Sachdeva added.
He further said that the current government will need time to correct the mistakes made by the previous Kejriwal government.
