With 'aarti' on Day 1, CM Rekha Gupta takes first step to make Yamuna 'identity of Delhi'

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and her ministers on Thursday hit the ground running with focus on "Maa Yamuna." The chief minister attended a grand "Yamuna Aarti" on Vasudev ghat before chairing her first cabinet meeting which announced implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme - one of the key poll promises made by BJP to the people of Delhi during elections.
That "clean Yamuna project" was important for the BJP was evident from the fact that the process to start cleaning the river had started even before the government was formed. "We want to make Maa Yamuna clean and free-flowing. This marks the beginning of the BJP's commitment," party's Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva had said emphasising the government's dedication.
Yamuna pollution has been one of the key election issues in Delhi for long. When Arvind Kejriwal became the chief minister in 2015 with a massive mandate, he promised to clean the Yamuna in 5 years. Ironically, ten years into power, he did little and in 2025 the people of Delhi turned to the BJP which promised a slew of measures in its manifesto to restore the lost glory of Yamuna river.
A month back, when the campaigning for assembly elections was at its peak, Kejriwal, who failed to live up to his promise of cleaning the Yamuna, added a completely new dimension to the Yamuna politics. The AAP chief accused the BJP-led Haryana government of poisoning the Yamuna water that comes to Delhi.
"BJP's Haryana government has poisoned the water in Yamuna. If this water would have entered Delhi only to be mixed with the drinking water, many people would have died in Delhi. It would have caused mass genocide," the former Delhi chief minister had then alleged.
"A few countries use biological weapons to poison river water. But, the same has been done by the BJP government. They have done this to create chaos in Delhi so that the people of Delhi die and the blame comes on AAP. I want to tell BJP to not stoop this low," he also added.
Clearly, this was an extreme which took everyone, even the people of Delhi, by surprise. BJP leader and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed that Kejriwal's posioned water statement cost him very dear in elections. "If he had not made such a statement, his party would have won 5-7 seats more," Khattar asserted, adding "More than 40 per cent of Delhi's residents are from Haryana. This statement insulted people of Haryana and Delhi both."
Well, it would be difficult to quantify the extent of loss that the poison attack caused, one thing is sure that the people of Delhi did not buy the theory as the results showed.
Interestingly, Arvind Kejriwal had also performed Yamuna Aarti at Gita ghat in November 2015 after becoming the chief minister to mark the beginning of his promise to clean the river. However, 10 years down the line Yamuna pollution was one of the key factors that led to his defeat. The BJP realises the importance of Yamuna in capital politics and that perhaps explains why Rekha Gupta did not want to miss the opportunity of sending out a strong message to people of Delhi on Day 1.