As Delhi battled with the rising water level of Yamuna which inundated the heart of the city for two days, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma remembered Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal‘s past invitation to Delhi and said he is ready to visit Kejriwal’s house but no invitation was extended. “I am still waiting for the invitation. It’s been six months. If the invitation comes today, I am ready to visit his house,” Himanta said. On Friday, there was waterlogging near Kejriwal’s house in Delhi’s Civil Lines.
“In Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, urban floods take place. Guwahati too gets urban flood. We all have our issues but the atmosphere where a chief minister derides another state should change,” Himanta said as one one lakh people in Assam are affected by floods. In Assam, the flood situation worsened after Bhutan released excess water from the Kurichu dam after informing the Assam government.
On July 13, when the Yamuna water level broke all past records with the water starting to enter the Capital, Himanta put out a tweet which he later deleted. “…after witnessing the current state of Delhi on national television, I feel much more comfortable in my own city Guwahati. I dread watching his ‘work’,” Himanta tweeted and it was later deleted.
Assam AAP unit took offence over the tweet and said if Himanta Biswa Sarma goes to Delhi even during the flood, he will find better management, governance and relief operations. “It’s a natural calamity plus vendetta politics of BJP which deliberately released uncontrolled water towards Delhi of equally sharing it with UP,” AAP’s Rajesh Sharma said.
Kejriwal vs Himanta Biswa Sarma
Kejriwal versus Himanta Biswa Sarma goes a long way starting during the pandemic. Former Delhi minister Manish Sisodia linked Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan with a PPE kit row in Assam against which Riniji filed a defamation suit against Sisodia, who is now in jail. After that, Kejriwal and Himanta fought over their job claims and then Kejriwal said he would like to take Himanta Sarma on a tour to Delhi’s schools and hospitals. To this, Himanta said he accepts the invitation but he will visit the places where he wants to go, not where Kejriwal wants to take him.
