The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday alleged that the BJP is remote-controlling Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal to make traders “suffer” from weekend curfew and odd-even restrictions.
“When the Delhi government logically reasoned [with the L-G] to reduce the curbs after the cases came down, he refused to do so at the behest of the BJP,” AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said.
The AAP leader said the BJP has been trying to find avenues to politicise the situation.
“When the Omicron variant was first found in Delhi, it was the BJP which was slandering the Delhi government over crowded markets. BJP leader Ramvir Bidhuri himself had asked why the government was not imposing restrictions on markets. Taking cognisance of the matter, the government imposed amicable restrictions like night curfew, weekend curfews and odd-even system in markets,” Mr. Bharadwaj said.
The moment these restrictions were imposed, the BJP, which had demanded these steps, started another false propaganda that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was hurting business through COVID-19 curbs, he said.
“Mr. Bidhuri who called for the curbs then asked the L-G to lift the curbs accusing the government of hurting livelihoods. You could see the BJP’s herd mentality,” Mr. Bharadwaj said.
He said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said that with the situation significantly improving, it is only logical for the weekend curfew and the odd-even system to be lifted, but the BJP-nominated L-G refused to accept this demand.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Saturday accused the Delhi government of deceiving the city’s businessmen and workers. Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that the government should first change rules in its own Graded Response Action Plan to provide relief to those engaged in varying kinds of economic activity.
“At present, the positivity rate in Delhi is close to 20% and more than 10,000 patients are coming daily. According to the Delhi government’s own rules, the curbs cannot be lifted and it [the government] is aware of it. Despite this, the government made a proposal and sent it to the L-G. It wants to show that it wants to give people relief but the L-G is not letting this happen,” the leader said.
“It was a matter of “great shame”, Mr. Bidhuri said, that even in this difficult time the government was “playing this cruel joke” with businessmen and other sections of society. The government should first change its rules and then send a new proposal,” he said.
In another development, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta urged the L-G to end weekend curfew.
