AAP alleges 'education mafia' back in Delhi, slams BJP over fee hike in private schools

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Delhi government, accusing it of allowing private schools to arbitrarily hike fees.

Addressing a press conference, senior AAP leader and former education minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the BJP government had handed over Delhi's education system to the "education mafia". "Ever since the BJP government came to power in Delhi, people have been suffering. Medicines are not available in hospitals, there are long power cuts, and now private schools are looting parents by increasing fees," Sisodia said.

Claiming that several private schools have hiked fees by 20 to 82 per cent , he accused the government of inaction. "Parents are worried. Children are being denied classes if their parents can't pay the increased fees, and the school administration isn't listening. The BJP government is a silent spectator," he said.

In a post on microblogging site X, AAP minister Atishi reiterated the allegations and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry. "Watch through this press conference how Arvind Kejriwal's government, after coming to power in 2015, stopped private schools from increasing fees arbitrarily. But as soon as the BJP government came, these schools again got a free hand to loot," she said.

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She questioned how private schools that had not raised fees in a decade were now doing so within a month of BJP's takeover. "Is the BJP government complicit in this?" she asked. Earlier on Friday, AAP national convener and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also took to X to share a news clipping about fee hike at a private school in Dwarka.

"In 10 years, we didn't allow private schools in Delhi to hike their fees arbitrarily. We ended the education mafia. Within just a month of their (BJP) government taking over, the education mafia has returned," he said.