Amid Twitter war, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a jibe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and dared him to compare Delhi with New York and Tokyo. “Delhi has been the capital of India since the time of the Mughals. He should compare Delhi with the New York and Tokyo instead of Guwahati and Shillong. I do not have as good resources as Delhi has, but still, I run 40,000 schools while he runs 1,200 schools,” CM Sarma said. He further said, “Kejriwal ji wanted me to invite him to Assam. I have already invited Manish Sisodia, he must have got a notice from the Court as well. He (Arvind Kejriwal) should also come if he wants.”
This came days after the Chief Ministers of both the states engaged in a war of words on Twitter over the education systems implemented in their states.The spat began when reacting to a news report that the Assam government had decided to shut down 34 schools due to poor results while Kejriwal had said that shutting of schools was not the solution. This tweet drew a sharp response from CM Sarma, who claimed that Kejriwal had skipped ‘homework’ before commenting. He also asked how the Kejriwal government established many new schools in Delhi in his seven years of governance.
“Dear @ArvindKejriwal Ji. – As usual, you commented on something without any homework! Since my days as Edu Minister, till now, please note, Assam Govt has established/ taken over 8610 NEW SCHOOLS; break-up below. How many new schools Delhi Government has started in the last 7 yrs?”
Sarma also listed numbers related to schools that the Assam government had taken into its fold.
“Provincialisation or taking over Pvt schools into govt fold since 2013: Elementary 6,802; Secondary 1,589 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya:81 Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Avashik Vidayalaya:3 Adarsha Vidyalaya:38 Tea Garden Model School:97 Curious to know Delhi’s figures!,” Sarma added.