AAP Kichad Failate Rahiye, Main Kamal Khilati Rahungi: BJP’s New Delhi Candidate Bansuri Swaraj to News18

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Edited By:

Manjiri Joshi

Last Updated:March 17, 2024, 17:10 IST

Bansuri Swaraj to News18: "Abki Bar 400 Paar is a pledge, not a slogan. This is our sankalp. Aur sankalp ko siddhi tak lekar jayegi Bhartiya Janata Party. The BJP doesn't cut tickets, it gives opportunities…"

Bansuri Swaraj is a secretary of the Delhi unit of the BJP. (PTI)

As she begins her Lok Sabha electoral journey, Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of the late Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran Sushma Swaraj, in an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, said her mother would have advised her to keep working fearlessly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dropped Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi to give the New Delhi seat to Swaraj. Last year, Swaraj was given the responsibility of co-convener of the BJP Delhi Legal Cell — a first official role for her. Swaraj is a secretary of the Delhi unit of the BJP and has a natural flair for oratory like her mother.

Swaraj was the additional advocate general for Haryana and has a private practice since 2007. Right now, she is an advocate of the Supreme Court of India, where she recently appeared as one of the counsels in the Chandigarh mayor election case. The soft-spoken yet assertive politician graduated in English Literature from the University of Warwick and has a master’s degree from St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford.

Edited excerpts:

What has changed since the announcement of your name as a BJP candidate? How did you learn about your candidature?

I was watching television with my father when the announcement happened. I said, “Aapka aashirwad sar mathe par." I am speaking to journalists these days a little more…but the campaign started on March 2 itself. I’ll be very honest. I was scheduled to go to JNU to speak to ABVP karykartas and I made sure that I kept that promise because I did not want to start my political journey by breaking one. After all, I began my journey as an ABVP karykarta.

The Delhi Lok Sabha seat is high-profile because people like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and even Rajesh Khanna contested from there. Your mother was also the Chief Minister of Delhi. What is going on in your mind? What is your vision for Delhi?

There are two aspects to it. First, there is no high-profile seat. Every voter is devtulya. In public outreach, one needs to go to every voter across economic strata, caste, religion, community and region. Every seat demands equal amount of hard work.

My vision for Delhi is two-fold. Firstly, to translate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat plan on ground. The welfare schemes of the Modi government must reach every individual. Also, there are local issues which need to be highlighted such as the Ayushman Bharat Yojana not being implemented in Delhi because of the AAP government. Unfortunately, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has deprived the people of Delhi of the health benefit. Secondly, clean drinking water and pollution. People of Delhi want clean water, not free water. I have strategies for it, which I am not going to share at this moment. People of Delhi are also suffering because of the long list of the scams of the AAP.

You talk about free water and clean water in Delhi, but Kejriwal is giving free water with electricity, free bus rides for women and also Rs 1,000 per month to women. How will you counter it?

People of Delhi are smart. Take the last example of Rs 1,000 for women. Last month, I was watching an interview of AAP leader and minister Aatishi ji. She said this will not be implemented in the near future. It will go to the cabinet in June, they will take a decision on it and then implement it in October and may be later. You remember Kejriwal swore on his kids that he will never get into an alliance with the Congress and now see what he did. The people of Delhi are no longer going to believe him. This is just a ‘chunavi jumala’.

Ever since your candidature has been announced, Atishi called you anti-democratic and another AAP leader Somnath Bharti asked you five questions and called you anti-national for representing people like Lalit Modi and the Chandigarh mayor elections case.

I would respond to these allegations if they were correct. I said this time and again that the research team of AAP is too lazy. Atishi ji and Somnath ji should have called me when they were planning to do the press conference. I would have sent them the copies of every order to get their facts right before they levelled baseless allegations…Lekin main kahungi AAP kichad failate rahiye, main kamal khilati rahungi.

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The New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency includes Kejriwal’s Assembly constituency too. The AAP has been saying that they have done tremendous work. They also have an alliance with the Congress. What will be your strategy against them?

This alliance is immaterial. I am a resident of Kejriwal’s constituency. I never saw my MLA in my constituency ever. I am saying this as a voter of this area. He is the same person who talked about the black dairy and Rs 500-crore scams in which many senior Congress leaders were named. This coalition is based on self-interest. Where is your raj dharm and desh dharm when you have such a coalition? I have not seen Congress and AAP leaders speak about Sandeshkhali too.

Kejriwal has got bail from the Delhi Court in the Enforcement Directorate’s case. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavita has been arrested by the ED. How do you look at these developments?

It is saddening to see that it has come to a point where Delhi’s chief minister has to seek bail. The reality is that in this matter he was supposed to get bail, so there is nothing to gloat about the “victory". When the ED issues summons under the PMLA, it is mandatory to adhere to it and when you do not follow the summons, you actually commit a crime which is punishable under the IPC. Had the chief minister simply gone to the agency, the situation would not have reached to this point. The allegations against K Kavita ji are very serious. One is that she is a member of the South Lobby, which has proven involvement in the Delhi liquor case. She was also holding benami shares in a liquor company which gave kickbacks and that is why the ED arrested her.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has been notified, but Kejriwal says that now you will have people coming from Pakistan and they will take the jobs of our children in India.

I am surprised that such an intelligent and educated man has made such a statement. It is unbecoming of a chief minister to raise such issues and spread misinformation. He knows that the CAA is not a law to take anyone’s citizenship away, it is actually to give citizenship. It gives citizenship to certain minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who have already come to India because of persecution before December 31, 2014.

Your government passed women’s reservation bill in Parliament. It cannot be implemented because of constitutional issues. The opposition is asking why did the BJP not give the reservation in their list of Lok Sabha candidates. The BJP has declared 267 candidates as of now and 16% women are part of it.

This is such an unfair comparison. Let’s look at Delhi. The AAP has not given a single ticket to a woman candidate, but Modi ji has ensured that the BJP has not one, but two women candidates from Delhi. The reservation bill is such a significant step…No other government was able to formulate the political will to implement it, but the Modi government did it. At times, the opposition raises issues just for the sake of it.

ALSO READ | Sushma Swaraj’s Daughter Hits Out At ‘Jhagdalu’, ‘Nikammi’ AAP Govt Over Delhi Services Law

How will the target of 400 for NDA and 374 for BJP be achieved? The question being asked is if you were so confident, why did you replace six sitting MPs in Delhi?

‘Abki Bar 400 Paar’ is a pledge, not a slogan. This is our sankalp. Aur sankalp ko siddhi tak lekar jayegi Bhartiya Janata Party. The BJP doesn’t cut tickets, it gives opportunities…In the BJP, you discharge the responsibility that is given to you to the best of your ability. Later, if that responsibility or the baton is passed on to somebody else, one is supposed to guide the other and ensure that another individual fulfils the responsibility to the best of his ability.