AAP's 'Delhi Model' book launch sparks criticism amid governance allegations

Last week the AAP, the ruling party of Delhi for the past 10 years celebrated its foundation day. On the same day the largest news agency of the country released an interesting feature saying, “The Delhi Model: Penguin India Announces Jasmine Shah’s book.” This news was repeated verbatim with big displays in many newspapers. The agency feature said, The Delhi Model: A Bold New Road Map to Building a Developed India, delves into the governance model that has redefined public administration in Delhi and influenced policy discussions nationwide.” One can say that its actually very brave of a reputed publisher like the Penguin to agree to publish publicity content provided by a top party functionary and also promote it as a piece of research. For the records, the author is a former vice chairperson of Delhi’s Dialogue and Development Commission, who had to quit office after his appointment was found to be sans the saction of law, like those of many other functionaries of AAP who were made part of government and used official machinery, perks and pay packets. The news item was headlined, “How can a flyover less than 10 years old tumble down, must probe ‘scam’: HC”.