The BJP and the ruling AAP continued to spar over the cleaning of the Yamuna River on Friday, with BJP MP Parvesh Verma landing in a controversy after a video showed him using inappropriate language while talking to an official of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
After this video, the AAP came down heavily on the BJP leaders who in a video were seen rebuking DJB officals for using a chemical to defoam the Yamuna, and alleged that the party was obstructing Chhath preparations.
In the video, Verma is heard asking a DJB official to take dip in the river and also calling him “besharam, ghatiya aadmi (shameless, horrible person)”. “Tu yahan pe dubki laga chal. Yahan pe log ayenge dubki lagane, tu lagake dikha pehle. (People will come over here to take a dip in the river. You take a dip in the river.),” he said.
In the video, the official is also heard explaining that the chemical being put in the river is US FDA approved and is also cleared by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for the use of cleaning the river.
To this Verma retorts, “Tere sar pe daal doon? (should I put this chemical on your head.)”
The video was shared by AAP MLA and DJB Vice-Chairman Saurabh Bharadwaj on Twitter. Verma is heard saying to the official that “aath saal me yaad aya ki ye approved hai. Yahan logon ko maar rahe ho tum, aath saal mein tum isko saaf nahin kar paaye. Isme dubki lagao. (After eight years, you have remembered now that it is approved? You are killing people here.
In eight years you could not clean it. Take a dip in the river now),” Verma is heard saying to the official.
In a subsequent tweet posted by Bharadwaj, some men can be seen countering Verma and other BJP leaders who had accompanied him, saying they only want the Yamuna River to be cleaned and don't care about which party is getting that done. "Delhi Government is preparing for Chhath Puja and BJP leaders are stopping work and misbehaving (with officials). The BJP wants Purvanchali brothers to suffer and festival to get spoiled," Bharadwaj said in a tweet in Hindi.
The AAP and the BJP have been targeting each other over the issue of Chhath Puja and pollution in the city river.
Earlier BJP MP Manoj Tiwari and Verma has alleged that Government, is trying to hide its failure to clean the Yamuna by spraying toxic chemical in the river.
Bharadwaj later slammed the BJP leader, saying it is “stupid” and “absolutely incorrect” to say poisonous chemical is being used to clean Yamuna. He added that the leaders of the saffron side should learn “something about science and technology”.
