The Delhi High Court has lashed out at the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi for splashing public money on what it termed was ‘propaganda.’ A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli made the scathing observation while hearing a case against the non-payment of salaries to employees of Delhi civic bodies.
Reacting to the argument put forward by the Delhi government on the shortage of funds, the judges said that they did not live in ivory towers and could see how the Delhi government was splashing money full-page advertisements in newspapers.
“We don’t live in ivory towers. There are full page ads everyday in newspapers with pictures of politicians,” Livelaw quoted the bench as saying.
According to news agency PTI, the bench asked the Delhi government, “From where that money is coming. Spending money in these times on propaganda. Is this not criminal? You will gain more goodwill by ensuring payment of salaries to these employees.”
The bench also said that the right of employees to get salaries and pension was ‘a fundamental right.’ The right to get salaries and pension is a part of right to life and liberty under the Constitution. Therefore, we are not inclined to pass any order which will infringe upon the rights of employees,” it added.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on 27 April.
Kejriwal has often condemnation for his obsession with wasting taxpayers’ money to improve his personal branding through advertisements. According to an RTI reply, Kejriwal spent a whopping Rs. 99.69 crore on advertisements between April and October last year alone. However, this figure was nowhere close to Rs 199.99 crore that the AAP government spent on ‘propaganda’ in 2019-20.
The latest round of embarrassment for Kejriwal from the high court comes amidst an RTI reply revealing how the AAP government did not commission any new hospitals or built any new flyovers between 2015 and 2019.