Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a public meeting in Delhi’s Dwarka said that people who live in “sheesh mahals” will never understand the plight of someone who doesn’t own a house, in a clear dig at Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal has come under severe criticism for reportedly spending Rs 45 crore on the renovation of the chief minister's official residence, which has been dubbed by his political rivals as “sheesh mahal”.
Modi said he himself does not own a house, so he understands the pain of the poor. "I do not have a house of my own, but my dream is to provide a concrete house to every poor person,” said Modi.
The prime minister said that the AAP government in Delhi is trying its best to ensure that the poor do not get proper housing. “The AAP government has not handed over thousands of houses built by the central government to the poor people of Delhi. Those who built 'sheesh mahal' worth crores for themselves will never understand the pain of the poor,” he said, adding that the BJP government must be formed in Delhi if the poor are to own any house.
Kejriwal has come under fire from the Congress party also before this. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said when Kejriwal first entered politics, he owned a small car and promised to do a new kind of politics. “He had said he will change Delhi, but when poor people were in need, he wasn’t there, when riots happened, he wasn’t there. He said he will do clean politics, but in Delhi, the biggest scam of liquor happened. And you must have seen the photo of his house. Kejriwal stays in a palace, 'sheesh mahal’,” said Gandhi.
Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its findings stated that Kejriwal renovated 6 Flagstaff Road, his official residence when he was chief minister, at an exorbitant cost of Rs 33.66 crore.
The audit found that he spent Rs 96 lakh on curtains, Rs 39 lakh on kitchen equipment, Rs 20.34 lakh on a TV console, Rs 18.52 lakh on gym equipment, Rs 16.27 lakh on silk carpets, Rs 4.8 lakh on a minibar. Rs 66.89 lakh on marble stone for walls, and Rs 14 lakh for floor tiles.
Kejriwal had responded to the estimates and said that the figures are wrong. He said 6 Flagstaff Road was not his personal home but his official residence. "Dr Abdul Kalam lived in Rashtrapati Bhavan, which has 250 or 300 rooms, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was a simple man. Similarly, I stayed in the official CM house when I was Chief Minister. Before that, as an activist, I lived in Delhi's slums. When I was a Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax department, I lived in a flat in Kaushambi. God has given me responsibilities, and I have lived according to them,” he told podcaster Raj Shamani.