New Delhi [India], June 29 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Saurab Bharadwaj on Sunday asked for clarification on the future of all the people whose lives were displaced by the slum demolition exercise of the Chief Minister Rekha Gupta-led Delhi government .
Bharadwaj further asked whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted the people to return to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"I want to ask the Delhi government, where will these millions of displaced people go?... It is the BJP's responsibility to clarify where these people will go, or do you want these people to return to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from Delhi?... Today, the crisis in Delhi is not only about slums, but notices are coming for unauthorised colonies... Slums are being demolished without notice. So far, a total of 10,000 slums have been demolished, rendering people homeless..." Bharadwaj told ANI.
He further alleged that while on one hand BJP was uprooting poor Purvanchalis and sending them back to Bihar, on the other hand ,they were asking for votes from the people of Bihar.
"This issue is not about AAP. I think every party contesting elections in Bihar should raise this issue that on one hand, BJP governments are uprooting poor Purvanchalis and sending them back to Bihar... and on the other hand, they are asking for votes from the people of Bihar in Bihar..." the AAP leader said.
Meanwhile, AAP is all set to hold a massive protest at the Jantar Mantar today, led by teh party's National Convenor and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, senior leader Manish Sisodia, and Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj, against the BJP's demolition of jhuggis.
Senior AAP leader and Delhi Unit President Bharadwaj said the BJP has "betrayed" the very people who trusted them and voted them into power.
"During the Delhi elections, PM Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders made a solemn promise to the poor living in jhuggis that homes would be built for them at the very sites of their jhuggi settlements. The poor, believing in this promise, voted for the BJP. But merely days after forming the government, the BJP began a merciless campaign of evictions," he said.
The AAP Delhi Unit Chief claimed that over 10,000 jhuggis have already been demolished, displacing more than one lakh residents, rendering them homeless and without any form of shelter or security.
"Where houses have been given, they are in remote locations devoid of basic amenities. Many families have not been given any housing at all under the pretext of being ineligible, forcing them to live on the streets," he added.