Virendra Sachdeva had been experiencing severe itching and breathing problems after taking a plunge in the poisonous Yamuna River.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva was admitted to a hospital for taking a dip in the heavily polluted Yamuna River.
The incident was a protest against the Delhi government, which, the party claimed, failed to deliver the promise to clean the river by 2025.
Sachdeva, who fell ill on Thursday, is now admitted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital with severe itching and breathing difficulties.
As a party statement said, he took the dip to “seek forgiveness” for the Delhi government’s “corruption” in misusing funds allocated for river cleaning.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai, a senior AAP leader, attacked the BJP’s “drama” and accused the party’s governments in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana of releasing untreated industrial wastewater into the Yamuna.
On Wednesday, Sachdeva challenged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to dip in the river, reminding him of the 2025 cleaning pledge.
The Yamuna has been further polluted. The entire river is now covered with a thick layer of poisonous foam that is highly dangerous to health. Such froth comprises harmful chemicals, which have caused respiratory diseases and irritated skins, among other problems.
The high ammonia content has also adversely affected the treatment plants in Delhi. This is alarming during the Hindu festival of Chhath Puja when immersion rituals into the Yamuna River take place.
The BJP also erected a stage at Chhath Ghat on the Yamuna to remind Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and her predecessor, Arvind Kejriwal, of the AAP’s promise that it would clean the river with two chairs.
