Delhi Leader of Opposition Atishi has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being “anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh” for allegedly removing portraits of Dr. BR Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh from government offices. Atishi made the allegation after meeting newly elected Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Monday.
“The anti-Dalit mentality of the Bharatiya Janata Party is well known. Arvind Kejriwal had put up photos of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh in every office of the Delhi government,” Atishi said during a press conference.
“Since BJP came to power, they removed these photos from the Chief Minister’s office. This shows that the BJP is an anti-Dalit, anti-Sikh party,” she added.
AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal also criticized the move on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “The new BJP government of Delhi removed Baba Saheb’s photo and put up the photo of Prime Minister Modi. This is not right. This has hurt millions of followers of Baba Saheb.”
He urged the BJP to reconsider, saying, “You can put the Prime Minister’s photo, but do not remove Baba Saheb’s photo. Let it remain there.”
Atishi also accused the BJP government of failing to implement the Mahila Samman Yojana, a financial assistance scheme for women. “The Prime Minister promised this scheme in the first cabinet meeting, but nothing has been done. The PM’s guarantee is false,” she alleged.
She added that despite repeated requests, the AAP leaders were not given time to discuss the issue with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. “We asked for a meeting for two days. Today, we finally met her during the Assembly session,” Atishi told ANI.
Earlier in the day, Rekha Gupta took oath as a Member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. According to the Delhi Assembly bulletin, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena will address the House on February 25, with discussions and the Deputy Speaker election scheduled for February 26.
