“Missing” posters of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gautam Gambhir, who drew criticism for skipping a crucial meeting on pollution on November 15, surfaced across Delhi on November 17.
“Missing. Have you seen this person? He was last seen eating jalebis in Indore. The entire Delhi is looking for him,” the message on the posters stated along with a picture of Mr. Gambhir, the Lok Sabha member from East Delhi.
These posters cropped up after the cricketer-turned-politician skipped a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on urban development on November 15 over air pollution in the National Capital Region.
Pictures of Mr. Gambhir, who appears on a sports channels for cricket commentary, enjoying jalebis in Indore on the same day also surfaced on social media.
Photo posted on the official twitter account of former cricketer V.V.S. Laxman on November 15, 2019, shows himself, cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir (centre) and broadcaster Jatin Sapru (right) eating jalebis in Indore. Photo: Twitter/@VVSLaxman281
Only four MPs of a 28-member parliamentary panel attended the key meeting to discuss the air pollution crisis in the National Capital Region. The meeting was ultimately called off as lawmakers and bureaucrats were absent.
Mr. Gambhir had come under attack from Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which demanded that the East Delhi MP should quit from his post for “failing” the people of Delhi.
The parliamentarian had hit back at the AAP, saying he should be judged by his work and not by “propaganda or false narrative spread by the minions of the honest” Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, a close aide of the BJP MP alleged that the posters were a handiwork of the AAP that “has not been able to digest the humiliating defeat of its candidate, Atishi, at the hands of Gautam Gambhir in the Lok Sabha election”.
According to Gaurav Arora, Mr. Gambhir was in his constituency till last November 13. He inaugurated two schools of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and attended other programmes before leaving for his fixed assignment.
“The AAP and its leaders are baffled by the work done by Gambhir in a short span of five months in East Delhi after winning the election,” Mr. Arora added.
