Delhi govt spent Rs 20 lakh per minute to organise Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘Laxmi Puja’, reveals RTI reply

An RTI reply has revealed that Delhi Government spent a whopping Rs 6 crore to organise Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Laxmi Puja event in November this year.

This effectively means that the AAP leader spent Rs 20 lakh of taxpayers’ money for every single minute during the 30-minute event.

The RTI reply by the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation Limited also acknowledged that the Laxmi Puja was an official event of the Delhi government.

Sharing a copy of the reply, activist Saket Gokhale wrote on Twitter, “Breaking: Delhi AAP Govt. spent 6 crores (approx $0.8 million) of taxpayer money for the Laxmi Puja event & its live telecast done by @ArvindKejriwal on 14 November, 2020. This whopping cost of 6 crores public money was for a 30-minute puja. Thats 20 lakh rupees per minute.”

In his subsequent tweet, Gokhale wrote, “Most important: The AAP Govt in Delhi had public money to spend on this while victims of the Delhi Pogrom await compensation. Do the math & imagine how many families

in North East Delhi could’ve had their lives back with this 6 crores spent on a religious ceremony.”

Kejriwal had faced criticism for organising a puja for the ‘welfare of Delhi’, in which he was joined by his cabinet colleagues and their wives. Some analysts saw this event as a signal of his departure from being a secular leader, and validated accusations that he was pursuing a pro-Hindutva ideology in a bid to copy PM Narendra Modi.