War of words on monkeys...

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, November 13

The mayhem created by the monkeys of Delhi has generated a heated war of words between two prominent politicians of Delhi, both women – Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Mayor Arati Mehra.

Unable to find ways and means to control the menace and a meeting point between Dikshit ruled Delhi government and Mehra controlled Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), they spar over the monkeys. While Congress is in power in the Delhi government, the BJP snatched power from the Congress in the MCD early this year.

The war of words began soon after Dikshit’s comment. “After the BJP came to power, the monkey problem has only increased,” Dikshit told Reporters in the morning. When Mehra was contacted soon after, she said Dikshit was behaving “irresponsibly”. “She is making a mockery of the democratic process and the people of Delhi who elected the BJP to rule the MCD,” Mehra retorted back. The Mayor said the CM should desist from such remarks and behave responsibly.

Later in the day when Reporters asked for Dikshit’s comment on the Mayor’s statement asking her to behave responsibly, the CM insisted that the monkey problem indeed started after BJP came to power in the civic body. After making the statement, she smiled at the Reporters. “We want to help out the MCD with funds and other means to control the monkeys but first they have to come to us for this,” the CM said. She washed off the hands of the government saying that monkey problem was a “civic issue” and the BJP was in power in the civic body.

The BJP politicians in MCD on the other hand insist that monkey is a wild animal and the Wildlife Department is under Delhi government. “They are equally to blame, if not more for the situation going out of control,” said a senior BJP councilor in the MCD. (2007)