The day following the controversial opening of Punjab's inaugural 'School of Eminence' by Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the ruling party faced additional embarrassment. This occurred when one of its Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, representing Amritsar North and a former IPS officer from the 1998 batch, expressed on the Facebook page of his party colleague Inderbir Singh Nijjar, the MLA from Amritsar South, that the establishment of the school in Amritsar was merely a superficial gesture.
Singh noted that only minor changes had been made to an already successful state-operated 'Smart School' in Amritsar. This development followed the inauguration of the 'School of Eminence,' which had sparked controversy, with the Opposition accusing Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP leader, of placing Sippy Sharma, the leader of a union of physical training instructors (PTI), under house arrest to prevent potential protests during the event. Sharma represented a union of PTIs hired to teach at state-run schools in 2011, but they still awaited their appointment letters.
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On the subsequent Thursday, Nijjar shared images of the 'School of Eminence' and portrayed its inauguration as the "start of an educational transformation in Punjab."
In response to the post, Singh expressed his views in Punjabi:
“Congratulations Dr Sahib. Do show me the school if it is a newly constructed one. According to my information, this school is already an excellent school and was made a Smart School by earlier governments.” Adding that he had visited the school before, he conceded that “a few renovations have been done now”, as reported by The Print
“As far as I know Shri Satyapal Dang (Communist Party of India leader from Punjab) had brought about a complete makeover of the school,” he wrote.
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“I have been noticing for a long time that the results of the school are excellent. We had promised to construct new schools of excellence. Kindly shed some light on this.”
Despite the removal of the comment from Nijjar's timeline, a screenshot of it quickly circulated on social media. The Opposition seized this opportunity to accuse AAP's national leader Kejriwal and Punjab's Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of deceiving the public with their pre-election promise of constructing new high-quality schools in the state. The statement made by the AAP MLA received praise from the Opposition, who also alleged that the government had wastefully spent funds on an already existing school.
Responding to Singh's comment, the Leader of the Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa, commended Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh for his bravery. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief, Sukhbir Singh Badal, indirectly criticized the MLA from Amritsar North, asserting that the AAP was dishonestly misleading the people of Punjab.
