New Delhi: Ahead of the assembly polls here, TD chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday launched a scathing attack on the ruling AAP over a “lack of infrastructure development” and dubbed the Delhi model as a “total failure”.
Naidu, whose Telugu Desam is an ally of the ruling NDA at the Centre, took a jibe at the AAP government, saying Delhi has a “half-engine sarkar,” and needs a double engine sarkar to achieve development.
Speaking to the media after an election campaign in the national capital, Naidu mainly highlighted lack of infrastructure development in the capital over the last decade.
“In Delhi, you cannot differentiate between drinking and drainage water,” despite the existence of central government schemes like AMRUT and Jal Jeevan Mission, he claimed.
He said, “These two schemes were not implemented by the AAP for feat that the credit will go to the BJP-led central government. Even the Swachh Bharat Mission was not implemented here.”
Naidu also said “weather and political pollution” were plaguing Delhi.
Underlining that performance and better living standards are important and not ideology, he said, “The poor people in Delhi have to think and decide if they want to live permanently in slums without proper amenities and opportunities.”
He also questioned the sustainability of welfare politics without wealth creation. “Without creating wealth, what is the right of a politician to distribute wealth,” he asked, calling for a national debate on this issue.
Drawing from his political experience since 1978, Naidu highlighted the stark contrast between Delhi’s current state and its historical position as a career-building hub. “Originally, Delhi used to be home for building careers. It was our pride. Today, nobody is coming here. People are going from Delhi to other places for livelihood and opportunities,” he observed.
On development projects, he asked whether there have been any infra projects in the last 10 years? “Long back, the metro had come. Nothing else has been done.”
Naidu termed Delhi’s controversial liquor policy as the “worst scam” compared to other corruption cases and spoke about his own experience of introducing Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) in 1995 to reduce impurities in liquor.
Advocating a development-focused approach, Naidu proposed his “P4” model — public, private and people’s partnership — to address poverty.
He suggested that the top 10 per cent of high-net-worth individuals should adopt the bottom 20 per cent to improve the latters’ living standards.