New Delhi, February 16 – Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday of adopting double standards towards a private school in south Delhi, which allegedly withheld some students' board examination admit cards.
Sachdeva said that AAP's Delhi convener Saurabh Bharadwaj went to APJ School in Saket to protest the alleged withholding of some students' board examination admit cards due to a fee hike. However, it was the governments of then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Atishi that granted the school permission to increase fees in the academic years 2022–23, 2023–24, and 2024–25.
"AAP leaders are so quick at changing their political stance that perhaps even a chameleon cannot change its colors as fast," said Sachdeva.
The Delhi BJP President said that the people of Delhi want to know from AAP leader Bharadwaj whether it is true that the Kejriwal–Atishi governments themselves allowed APJ School to increase fees by 5 per cent in 2023, followed by 10 per cent in 2023–24 and another 10 per cent in 2024–25, amounting to a total 25 per cent increase in just two-and-a-half years.
The BJP leader said that Bharadwaj, who today claims that the AAP government took strict administrative action against APJ School in 2020–21, should clarify whether it is true that his government only issued a notice to the school.
He said that the AAP governments did not take any punitive action against the school, and instead, they permitted a 25 per cent fee hike between 2023 and 2025.
Sachdeva said that no matter how hard Bharadwaj and other AAP leaders try, they can no longer mislead the people of Delhi by making tall claims about improvements in the education and health sectors under the AAP government.
Whether it is government school buildings reduced to ruins over five years, granting fee-hike permissions to several private schools, including APJ School, or the pathology lab test scam in Mohalla Clinics — all these have exposed the AAP government's education and health models, said Sachdeva.
"That is why, during today's protest at APJ School, Bharadwaj could neither gather parents nor his own party workers," he said.
Earlier in the day, BJP's Moti Nagar MLA Harish Khurana also criticized the double speak by AAP leaders on school fee hikes.
Addressing reporters, Khurana said, "Ever since the AAP government was voted out of Delhi, it appears that its leaders have been unable to accept the mandate given by the people of Delhi."
Since 2025, we have witnessed a strong, honest, and transparent government functioning under the leadership of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, which is why new allegations and controversies are being created on a daily basis by the AAP, he said.
Khurana said that Bharadwaj attempted to create a fresh controversy regarding the matter of APJ School, Saket, but I would like to clarify that this issue has been pending since 2020.
"Everyone knows which party was in power in Delhi at that time. If the matter was indeed serious, why was no concrete action taken for five years?" he asked.
It is now being alleged that students' roll numbers were deliberately withheld, said Khurana.
"I would like to make it clear that a similar situation had arisen during the previous government’s tenure as well, and intervention was made at that time to provide relief to the students. The only difference is that our government has now enacted a law to provide a permanent solution to such issues," he said.
"The new law introduced by the Delhi Government clearly stipulates that no student’s roll number can be withheld. Section 13 of the Act ensures that no school can collect additional or unauthorized fees from parents without prior approval, nor can it exert pressure for fee collection. This framework establishes transparency and accountability through school-level Fee Regulation Committees and an appellate mechanism," he said.
