Walking the talk

The government at the Centre, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi were at each other's throats last week for allegedly saying something and doing just the opposite. Participating in a discussion in Patna, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the central government had declared null and void its decision to enhance per acre land acquisition compensation to farmers in Delhi from Rs 57 lakh to Rs 3.5 crore. Therefore, the BJP was anti-poor and anti-farmer - it talked about cooperative federalism, but did the opposite, Kejriwal said. Within 24 hours, came the BJP's repartee: It cited an earlier tweet by Kejriwal slamming Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad - "Lalu made crores (of rupees) in the fodder scam and he has to pay only Rs 25 lakh as fine. A sweet deal?" - and said Kejriwal spoke of rooting out corruption but extended a hand of friendship to Prasad in Bihar. "This is a very innovative way of fighting corruption," said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.