A war of words has broken out between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the national capital over the Bawana plastic factory fire incident that claimed at least 17 lives.
The controversy erupted after BJP leader and North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Mayor Preeti Aggarwal was caught on camera telling her aides to refrain from speaking on the incident as the factory’s licence was issued by the BJP, which rules all the three municipal corporations in Delhi.
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In the purported video, Aggarwal can be heard murmuring to her aides, “Is factory ki licensing hamare paas hai isliye hum kuch nahi bol sakte (we have issued the license to this factory so we cannot say anything)”.
As the 18-second clip went viral on social media, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too retweeted it on Twitter adding fuel to fire. The BJ has sought an apology from the Delhi CM.
As supporters of both the parties indulged in online trolling on Facebook and Twitter, the BJP leaders, caught in a fix, were forced to issue clarifications as they shifted the blame on the ruling AAP government.
“A video of me has gone viral on social media and has been retweeted by CM (Kejriwal) as well. I only made some inquiry about the place from my co-workers… I meant we shouldn’t say anything about such unfortunate incident at this time,” Aggarwal clarified.
Blaming the AAP government, Aggarwal said the industrial area was under DSIDC and the land was allotted by the Delhi government.
“They should at least see what work is being done there. Is making a fake video viral and confusing public is fair? It’s condemnable and I expect Arvind Kejriwal Ji to apologise,” she added.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari too came to Aggarwal’s defence and accused Kejriwal of indulging in “low-level politics”.
“Nothing is clear in the video… People are spreading a fake video at a sad time just to blame BJP. CM retweeted it, he must apologise for such low-level politics,” Tiwari said.
As many as 17 people, including 10 women, were burnt alive or asphyxiated and 30 others injured at a fire in a plastic warehouse in west Delhi’s Bawana on Saturday evening.
Kejriwal has ordered a thorough probe into the incident.
