New Delhi, February 24, 2025: A political storm broke out in the Delhi Assembly on Monday after the Aam Aadmi Party accused the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party government of removing the portraits of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh from the office of the Chief Minister in exchange for pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP has rejected the allegations outright, calling them “cheap politics” by Aam Aadmi Party.
Claims by AAP
AAP MLA Atishi Marlena raised the issue of the alleged removal of the portraits during the first session of the new Delhi Assembly, claiming that the BJP’s actions amounted to an “anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh” stance. Atishi posted online images showing the alleged changes to the then Wojciechowce office decor.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party today has shown its anti-Dalit and anti-Sikh face to the country. As soon as they assumed power, they removed the pictures of Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from the Chief Minister’s office.”
In support of these claims, AAP leader and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to social media saying that the removal of Dr. Ambedkar’s portrait has hurt sentiments of millions of followers of his and called upon the BJP to restore the portraits, emphasizing the need to honor national icons.
Rebuttal of BJP
The response of Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta was that the allegations made were baseless and politically motivated. She stated that pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, President Droupadi Murmu, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were in fact put into the office and friends when no existing pictures of Dr. Ambedkar and Singh were taken down.
Gupta then raised questions: “Should not the picture of a head of the government be put up? Should not a picture of the President of the country be there? Should not the picture of Father of the Nation Gandhi ji?”
Virendra Sachdeva, the president of Delhi BJP, further condemned the accusations from AAP, saying that this was all a ploy to divert attention from their recent defeats in elections, specifically amongst communities with high Dalit and Sikh populations.
“Despairing over this defeat, Atishi made efforts to lie her way out of this from the Assembly premises,” he said. To prove BJP’s claim, Sachdeva showed photographs of the Chief Minister’s office where the contested portraits shared space.
Assembly Facing Disruption
The issue had included heated exchanges in the Assembly that had to result in the suspension of the Assembly session. Speaker Vijender Gupta rebuked Atishi for raising the issue without prior permission, deeming it an “unparliamentary act.”
BJP MLA Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma accused AAP of failing to perform developmental work in Delhi while also stalling the House’s proceedings for political gain. He urged the opposition as a whole to come together to work on projects that would be for the betterment of the city.
Political Implications
This episode appears to reflect a growing rift between AAP and BJP, following last month’s Assembly elections that handed the BJP control, with 48 seats, against AAP’s 22. The back-and-forth of accusations and counter-accusations reveal and encapsulate the intense politically polarizing atmosphere such rivalries thrive in and the different means the two parties have used in an effort to gain an advantage in shaping public opinion.
As the strifes continue regarding the alleged replacement of their portraits with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh portraits on the premises of the Delhi Chief Minister’s office, this political tussle has aggravated the discord between AAP and BJP.
While the two parties keep hurling accusations at each other, the debate alludes to more extensive issues about political rectitude and warrants upholding the dignity of national icons within India’s democratic setup.
