In light of the upcoming elections to the Himachal Pradesh assembly which are due in November 2022, a social media post criticising AAP’s poll promise of providing monthly stipend of Rs. 1,000 to every woman in Himachal Pradesh is being widely circulated. The post claims that AAP has made a similar promise in Punjab and after the elections, it backtracked blaming PM Modi for not providing funds. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: AAP backtracking on the promise of providing Rs. 1,000 every month to every woman above 18 in Punjab blaming PM Modi for not providing enough funds.
Fact: AAP promised to provide thousand rupees stipend to women of Punjab . However, there are no reports of AAP backtracking on the promise and blaming PM Modi for not providing with funds. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Punjab Poll Promise :
Providing a monthly stipend of thousand rupees to every woman aged above eighteen, was one of the many promises AAP made before elections in Punjab. Even in his speech following his oath-taking ceremony, speaking of his government’s priorities, Bhagwant Mann said that every woman of Punjab would be given a pension of Rs 1,000 every month.
However, over the course of time, neither the state unit nor the central unit of AAP has said that they could not keep up with the promise as PM Modi is not helping with the funds to implement the scheme. There are no reports in this regard.
In fact, speaking about his poll promises, AAP’s newly elected Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann through a Facebook post dated 11 April 2022, sought time from the people of the state. ‘Punjabis, give some time! Have a little patience. There’s nothing I don’t remember by mouth’ wrote Mann.
Earlier at the end of March 2022, Bhagwant Mann called on Prime Minister Modi in Delhi and sought a special financial package of one lakh crores from the Center. Following Mann’s meeting with Prime Minister, Punjab BJP targeted AAP saying, ‘the party was seeking money for the freebies it announced at the time of state polls.’
In all likelihood, political statements like these could be the source of the viral post. However, as of now, AAP has not made any official statement saying it could not keep up with the promise of providing a stipend to every woman.
As per the recent news, Bhagwant Mann met AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi to discuss the agenda of providing free electricity in Punjab for up to 300 units.
Himachal Poll Promise :
As of now, AAP has not made any such promise of providing a monthly stipend to women in light of the upcoming Himachal elections.
As far as the image of the billboard is concerned, the viral image is a digital version of an old billboard featuring Arvind Kejriwal. Reverse image search of the viral photo led us to a couple of 2015 news reports, that published a similar image but with a different caption (here & here).
Upon comparison of the viral image with the image published in the old article, it is evident that this old image is digitally edited and the promise of providing a monthly stipend to women in Himachal is added. The original image carries Arvind Kejriwal’s image with a caption that reads ‘Dhanyawad Delhi’.
As per news reports, the billboards thanking people of Delhi cropped up in the city following the party’s victory in the assembly elections. Further, the billboards feature a new look of Arvind Kejriwal, wherein he can be seen wearing a jacket.
To sum it up, the viral claim of AAP blaming PM Modi for not providing funds to implement the stipend for women scheme is not true.
