A dip, a sip, a grand declaration and a political dare. The Yamuna is once again at the centre of a political storm in the Capital.
The Delhi BJP claimed that the work undertaken by its government in two years had achieved what the Congress and AAP could not in 27 years.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari took a dip in the river at Sonia Vihar ghat on Thursday, claiming that pollution levels had dropped by half over the past year, thanks to the cleaning work undertaken by the Rekha Gupta government. He also claimed to have performed aachman (ritual sipping of water) at Sonia Vihar, praising the BJP government for its efforts to clean the river and accusing the AAP of failing to do so. It also challenged former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take a dip in the river. The AAP’s response was swift. The party’s Delhi president and former minister, Saurabh Bharadwaj, wrote on X: “These BJP frauds know nothing about Delhi. The Yamuna becomes increasingly polluted as it flows downstream through Delhi.
In a post on X, the Delhi BJP claimed that the work undertaken by its government in two years had achieved what the Congress and AAP could not in 27 years. It is well known that the 26-km stretch of the Yamuna from Palla to Wazirabad has always been comparatively clean. The 22-km stretch between Wazirabad and Okhla is considered particularly polluted and has been the focus of multiple government interventions. Just days ago, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched 43 projects worth Rs 8,941 crore aimed at cleaning the river. He also pledged that the BJP government would ensure that the Delhi stretch of the Yamuna was cleaned by May 2029.
Tiwari, who represents the North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, said the presence of migratory birds at certain stretches of the river indicated an improvement in its condition. “These birds would not have come here if the river wasn’t clean,” he asserted, adding that “there might be crocodile in water here but crocodiles come only in clean water”. It was cleaner during the AAP government, even according to DPCC reports.
