With the dismal performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, AAP with its fractured leadership, is on the path to further worsen its electoral position in the 2019 General elections. This fracture in the party ranks, coupled with the failure in securing an alliance with the Congress in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral conquest has now turned into a battle for survival.
Looking at the clean image of Narendra Modi’s government, AAP has abandoned its core agenda of anti-corruption and has been building its campaign around full statehood for Delhi; however the dissociation of promises and efforts by the AAP government has further sharpened questions over their credibility
AAP has also been trying to build a narrative around improvement of the conditions in Delhi’s government schools during its tenure; however, facts stand tall and destroy all the misleading claims made by senior leaders of AAP. Manish Sisodia, Dy CM of Delhi, who also holds the education portfolio in the state government, jumped ahead to claim the credit for the ‘improved’ pass percentage in a bid to garner steam for the general elections. CBSE had earlier announced the results of Class 12 in which 94.24 percent students of Delhi’s government schools passed the exams
He had Tweeted: “Delhi government schools results for the last 4 years – 2019 – 94.24% 2018 – 90.6% 2017 – 88.2% 2016 – 85.9% Modi ji kept disrupting us, we kept on working”
दिल्ली के सरकारी स्कूलों में पिछले 4 साल का रिजल्ट-
2019 – 94.24%
2018 – 90.6%
2017 – 88.2%
2016 – 85.9%
मोदी जी परेशान करते रहे
हम काम करते रहे— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) May 2, 2019
However, behind this ‘improved’ pass percentage in the results, are thousands of students who were denied re-admission into senior classes.
According to a report published by Times of India, sixty-six percent students in classes IX to XII of Delhi government schools who failed in 2017-18 have now gone out of the formal schooling system. Out of a total 1,55,436 students who failed, only 52,582 were readmitted in the same class. The report is based on official documents.
In Class X, around 38,961 students out of the total 42,503 who had failed to clear the exam were denied readmission; only 3,812 students were provided re-admission. That makes around 90 % of the students, who got chucked out of the education system. In class XII out of 10,566 students who had failed only 943 were re-admitted, indicating that more than 90 % of the students may have dropped out of the school system.
“Despite the high court order, a large number of students failed to get admission and now they are out of the school system. It is a very easy process the school just has to put the names of these students in the register. But the Government has complicated the system. This is because they want to put these students out of the school system so that they could show better result” said lawyer Ashok Agarwal of Justice for All. Last year Justice for All, an NGO working for the right to education space had filed a petition after class X students, who had failed, were being denied re-admission in the schools. The Delhi high court had, in August 2018, directed Delhi government to re-admit these students.
These statistics only point towards the façade created by the AAP government, which even went to the lengths of destroying futures of thousands of children in a bid to gain political applause. Dissociation from poll promises has adversely affected AAP’s credibility. Analyzing the current political scenario, many experts believe it to be the last election for AAP.
