After facing an embarrassing and crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, AAP has been facing an existential crisis. With various senior leaders jumping the sinking ship and the continually decreasing popularity of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal saw the party being reduced to third position even below the Congress in terms of votes in Delhi. Some seats even saw AAP candidates losing to the BJP by a margin of over 5 Lakhs votes.
However, in a bid to revive the party’s electoral prospects Arvind Kejriwal is back to his basic strategy ‘give freebies, get votes’. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced free rides for women in public transport, including buses and metro trains, in the national capital. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president and Delhi CM said that he hoped for the scheme to be implemented in three months.
“On all DTC buses, cluster buses and metro trains women will be allowed to travel free of cost so that they have safe travel experience and can access modes of transport which they were not able to, due to high prices,” Kejriwal said.
Arvind Kejriwal’s political career has been built around the concept of freebies and this announcement just adds a link to all the promises made by the Kejriwal government. This move by Arvind Kejriwal to bear the cost for the travel for nearly half the population of Delhi is sure to have a deep impact on the coffers of the Delhi government. This decision by the Delhi CM comes at a time when various colleges in the Delhi University are facing a major economic crunch due to non-release of funds by AAP government. Over 2,700 teaching and non-teaching staff of 12 Delhi University colleges may not get salaries from this month if the AAP government continues to withhold release of funds. Anurag Mishra, a professor at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, said, “The salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff have been delayed. We have exhausted funds.”
“This year, due to the EWS category being introduced, there will be an increase in the intake of students but there is no money for infrastructure development. Classrooms and labs have been built to accommodate a particular number of students. But if the college wants to expand the existing infrastructure, they do not have the funds,” he added.
The AAP government has blamed the university authorities for the delay over non-formation of governing bodies, claims have also been made against the AAP for deliberately choking funds. Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Vijender Gupta said that teaching, non-teaching staff and students must not be used by the Delhi government for advancing political purposes. Gupta said he along with a delegation of National Democratic Teachers Front (NDTF) will soon call on the LG to impress upon him the need for his early intervention in the matter.
“The Kejriwal government cannot blame the Delhi University for not constituting the Governing Bodies in these colleges. It is the Delhi Government which is using delaying tactics and not sending names of 10-12 GB members as needed for constitution of GBs,” he alleged.
At the time when the AAP government in Delhi is struggling to manage salaries for over 1200 employees of the Delhi University, populist announcements like these are further sure to hinder economic stability of the national capital.