Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has courted controversy for falsely claiming that the UK Prime Ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak has vowed to emulate the ‘Delhi Model’ if he is elected to power. He shared a claim made by a page page of an AAP leader that Rishi Sunak is going to follow the so-called Delhi model.
In a tweet on Thursday (August 11), he posted the link to an article from a website named ‘news24India.org’, which claimed that ‘Kejriwal model’ was on display during the UK Prime Ministerial campaign. The archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.
The said article stated that Rishi Sunak has promised to help residents of the UK with their electricity bills amidst rising energy prices. News24India was quick to link it to Arvind Kejriwal’s dole of ‘free electricity’ and how it has helped the Aam Aadmi Party to win elections in both Delhi and Punjab.
Logical fallacy in linking Rishi Sunak’s promises to Arvind Kejriwal’s freebie
The Delhi government had earlier launched a ‘scheme’ wherein all households in Delhi get ‘free electricity’ if monthly consumption is below 200 units. In case, the bill exceeds 200 units but remains within the 400 mark, households also get compensation of ₹800.
Although the plan was initially touted as encouraging households to consume less electricity, it had in fact aggravated the power crisis in the National Capital.
“The power ministry’s data showed that Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Punjab and Bihar faced the worst power crisis. Most of it can be attributed to these state governments’ promise of free electricity to the citizens,” a report in Business Standard stated.
Arvind Kejriwal shared the contentious News 24 article at a time when his government has decided to pull a plug on the free electricity scheme. Earlier on May 5, he said, “Now cheap electricity will be optional in Delhi. That is, if a power consumer wants electricity subsidy, then he will get free or subsidised electricity from now.”
He further added, “Power subsidy will be given to those who ask for subsidised power from October 1.” On the contrary, Rishi Sunak had been advocating a £5 billion windfall tax on energy firms to help provide relief to UK residents in the aftermath of rising energy prices (caused in part by the Russia Ukraine war and the Western sanctions).
“The oil and gas sector is making extraordinary profits, not as the result of recent changes to risk-taking or innovation or efficiency, but as the result of surging global commodity prices driven in part by Russia’s war,” Sunak had said earlier.
Under such circumstances, the UK Prime Ministerial candidate had promised to provide £400 off on monthly bills from October as part of a relief package to UK residents faced with a cost-of-living crisis.
This cannot be compared with Arvind Kejriwal’s free electricity scheme wherein loss-making discoms were deliberately made to bear the more loss at a time when electricity prices were low.
News24 India does not appear as legitimate news portal
Besides the obvious logical fallacy, the website that published the article shared by Arvind Kejriwal looks fishy. It was first pointed out by Political Kida. On visiting the website of the supposed ‘news channel’, we stumbled upon the link to their Facebook channel. News24India also claimed to be an independent news portal.
Interestingly, the Facebook page of the news portal was earlier named ‘Dimple Singh fans.’
Coincidentally, Dimpal Singh happens to be the Vice-President of the Uttarkhand unit of the Aam Aadmi Party.
A casual glance at the website of ‘News 24 India’ shows that its primary focus is on the State of Uttarkhand. While it is unclear whether the ‘news portal’ is a part of the AAP IT cell or run by AAP supporters, Arvind Kejriwal amplifying articles posted by it certainly raises doubts.