Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Singh is confident that the Aam Aadmi Party will return to power in the national capital. In an exclusive conversation with Sreenivasan Jain, she talks about her government’s efforts to tackle pollution, the jobs it had promised, her party’s “soft Hindutva”, its politics around Rohingya immigrants, and Arvind Kejriwal’s future.
In 2020, the AAP had promised to create 10 lakh jobs in Delhi, but the official portal reportedly shows only over 12,000 people had secured jobs as of 2022. “12,000 may be the number on the job portal. But the fact that now you have young people who are coming out of schools who are not looking for jobs, but at that point of time are themselves job creators…these are bottom of the pyramid job creators,” says the AAP leader.
Improved public transportation can tackle vehicular emissions which are the largest source of air pollution in Delhi, but according to the Centre for Science and Environment, public bus services are inadequate in the city.
“I don’t think that data is correct…This is the highest number of buses that Delhi has ever had…there has been an expansion of the Delhi Metro network by 450 kilometres in the last 10 years…the AAP government has invested Rs 7,500 crore in the building of the Delhi metro,” she says, adding that traffic from outside Delhi compounds the problem.
How does the AAP distinguish itself from the BJP’s Hindutva vision? “Aam Aadmi Party believes in providing facilities, improving the lives of people of all religions,” she says.
In the Delhi elections, are both the AAP and the BJP guilty of competitive scaremongering over Rohingya refugees? “It is not a question of whether it is Rohingyas, whether it is one community or another community…for any country…As far as national security goes, you cannot have porous borders, right?” she says, pointing to the alleged role of an immigrant in the Saif Ali Khan assault case.
The Supreme Court, in its bail order, had placed restrictions on Arvind Kejriwal’s powers. Eventually, he resigned as chief minister. Yet, if AAP wins, Kejriwal will be back in the top post, she insists.
Watch.
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