Delhi starvation deaths: Why silent, Arvind Kejriwal, asks BJP

Arvind Kejriwal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's silence on the death of three minor girls due to "starvation" and said a government like this should be ousted.

Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said they have also written to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, requesting them to dismiss the government.

"The death of three kids have shocked us and this incident has happened in the constituency of Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia," the BJP leader told the media here. He was accompanied by East Delhi BJP MP Maheish Girri while addressing the media.

Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital, Tiwari said that Sisodia has not visited the family members yet.

Questioning the silence of Kejriwal, Tiwari said: "Kejriwal, who keeps on commenting on the issues of country and the world, has not spoken a single word on the death of three kids."

Slamming the city government, Tiwari, who represents the Northeast Delhi constituency in Parliament, said: "Under the Right to Food Act, the Centre allots food to every state so that no one dies due to hunger. But in the national capital three kids have died due to hunger."

"This is an inhuman incident for us. The Delhi government did nothing on the complaint of fake ration cards. The ration meant for the poor is going to the ration mafias," he alleged.

The BJP leader said that he is not doing "politics" on the death and neither intends to join a "blame game". "We are raising this issue so that the poor get justice," he said.

He also alleged that ration card was not provided to the family. "Sisodiaji talks about door-to-door delivery of ration, but the fact is that bribe is demanded from the people for issuing ration cards," he said.

"The government responsible for the death of three children has no right to remain in power. Earlier, people in Delhi died over the issue of water scarcity, and now we are seeing that people are dying without food."

Slamming Sisodia, East Delhi MP Girri said that he is saying a white lie in the social media to hide his government's failures and demanded removal of the government.

"The Deputy Chief Minister is speaking a white lie in Twitter that the family came to the area two days ago," Girri said.

He also said that he has written to the PM, President and the LG demanding removal of the AAP government in the city.

Hitting out at the Mohalla Clinics of the AAP government, which provided medicines to the two girls, Girri saad: "It should also be probed as to what medicines were given to the girls, and how the medicine was allowed to be given when the girls had not eaten anything."

Three sisters -- aged two, four and eight -- were found unconscious in their one-room house in east Delhi's Mandawali area on Tuesday. The Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Hospital authorities said the children were brought dead.

An autopsy at the LBS Hospital on Wednesday suggested that starvation "appears" to be the cause of their death. The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the deaths.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates