New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday issued a WhatsApp number for people to pledge their contribution towards the salaries of yoga teachers under the ‘Dilli Ki Yogshala’ programme.
He also accused Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and the BJP of “hurting” Delhiites by trying to stop the yoga classes and other work implemented by the Aam Aadmi Party government in the national capital.
The Delhi BJP, however, accused the ruling dispensation of “not fulfilling administrative formalities” for running the programme.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said it is shocking to see a chief minister seeking funds from public through a media statement to run a government scheme, and issue a private WhatsApp number for the same.
Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said those willing to contribute need to send a message on 7277972779 confirming their willingness to contribute and also mention the number of teachers they wanted to fund. Each yoga teacher under the scheme is paid Rs 15,000 per month.
Recalling the saying ‘saviour is greater than killer’, he said, “The situation in Delhi is very similar. Every other day, the Lieutenant Governor and the BJP do whatever they can to hurt the citizens of Delhi. Every other day, there is a new attack on the citizens of Delhi. It is the Aam Aadmi Party that nurses the people of Delhi, and acts as their saviour.
He said he was “saddened” when a few days ago “the L-G and the BJP attempted to stop the yoga classes”.
“These classes were organised to improve the health of our citizens and primarily assist those who were dealing with post-Covid complications. More than 17,000 people have so far benefitted from these classes. Our target was to get 17 lakh people to practise yoga, but the BJP tried to snatch away this opportunity from the 17,000 people who are currently enrolled in this programme,” the chief minister said.
Claiming that the salaries of the yoga teachers were held back and they were asked to not take any more classes, he opined that it is a sin to stop these classes and deprive the citizens of Delhi their health.
“We received thousands of WhatsApp messages, asking for these classes to be continued. The people could not believe that a political party could stoop so low and obstruct yoga classes from being held in Delhi,” he said.
The AAP supremo further said that he had promised the yoga teachers that their salaries would be paid.
“They (teachers) had stopped (these classes) for two days, but now they have resumed, and I receive a lot of photos and videos from the people of their classes and I am very happy to see that the people are benefitting from these classes,” he said.
Since the entire episode, he said several people have come forward and expressed their willingness to contribute to keep the initiative running.
“A couple of individuals have come forward and said that they can bear the expense of the entire project. But we like the idea of these classes being contributory, and we would like to get contributions from as many people as possible.
“Today I am announcing a WhatsApp number. The Delhi government pays Rs 15,000 to a yoga teacher for organising a class in the morning and one more in the evening. We do not want money from the people, but we want them to let us know if they are capable of bearing the expenses that need to be paid to either one or two or more teachers.
“We would like these people to text us on this WhatsApp number and let us know how many teachers they can pay for, and we can perhaps directly connect them to these teachers, or we can take the cheque and pay the teachers,” Kejriwal added.
He said the 2 crore people of Delhi are one big family, and if there is any problem within the family, the people will come together and fight it out.
He also talked about the Dilli Ki Yogshala programme at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit later in the day.
“L-G sahab and the BJP stopped the yoga classes due to dirty politics. A chief minister who has got such a huge mandate cannot ensure that the people of Delhi do yoga. If some unelected person or a party can stop yoga, it is not democracy… Let the world know that dirty politics cannot stop good work. We will not let the yoga classes stop at any cost,” he said while asking people to contribute to pay the salary of teachers.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, “Kejriwal has once again shown that he is a total anarchist who has no respect for constitutional norms.”
“The BJP has repeatedly said that no one is stopping yoga classes, in fact it is a favourite programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and there is no question of Lt Governor of Delhi stalling the classes. The only thing is that the Kejriwal government should have fulfilled administrative formalities and sought competent authority’s approval which they can do even now, but the problem is Kejriwal wants to run the government at his whims violating constitutional procedures,” he said.
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