Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, has been compared to Adolf Hitler on an offensive billboard that has been put up in front of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi headquarters.
“Kejriwal is the second ruler who converted his city into a gas chamber, Hitler was first,” the ad said.
The poster was put up Saturday by the BJP’s Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who told news agency ANI ‘I compared him to Hitler because this is the world’s second example where a leader converted his own state into a gas chamber’.
The controversial BJP leader then distanced himself from the accusation, declaring, “I am not saying this… but Supreme Court has said…”
In addition, Bagga accused Kejriwal of engaging in “political tourism” by campaigning in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, two states governed by the BJP, while “people of Delhi are dying.”
VK Saxena, the lieutenant governor of Delhi, also used the term “gas chamber” to criticise Bhagwant Mann, the chief minister of Punjab, for his failure to put out farm fires in his state. According to Saxena, the circumstance “violates citizens’ fundamental right to health and life.”
No government has been able to effectively address the yearly issue of polluted air, which is exacerbated by the unlawful use of firecrackers during Diwali, building site dust, pollutants released by the thousands of automobiles that clog city streets, and farm fires in neighbouring states.
During a hearing on the steps the Delhi government was taking in 2019, the Supreme Court talked dejectedly of this issue. When the attorney referred to the city as a “gas chamber,” Justice Deepak Gupta concurred with the amicus curiae.
According to information from the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi’s AQI (air quality index) for this morning was 415, down from 447 on Friday.
On Friday, Kejriwal and Mann urged the centre, the governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, as well as others who contribute to the hazardous pollution that blankets these states every winter, to work together.
Kejriwal also took responsibility for farm fires in Punjab. “Pollution is not just Delhi’s problem… but entire northern India. Centre has to come forward and take specific steps so north India can be relieved… There should not be politics over such a sensitive issue. I admit there is stubble burning in Punjab,” he said.