“MISSING: Have you seen him? He was last spotted having jalebis at the Indore cricket stadium. The entire Delhi is looking for him,” read the posters. The 'missing' person in the posters was none other than East Delhi MP and former cricketer Gautam Gambhir.
The former India opener was widely criticised for skipping a parliamentary committee meeting on air pollution in New Delhi for a commentary assignment at Indore during the India-Bangladesh first Test match. This when he had been tweeting and slamming the Aam Aadmi Party government in the capital for not doing enough to control the severe air pollution in the city.
Gambhir's former teammate and fellow commentator V.V.S. Laxman tweeted a picture of them having jalebis and poha at Indore, which led to social media backlash against Gambhir, with AAP leading the way.
Only four MPs of the 28-member parliamentary panel attended the meeting to discuss the air pollution crisis in Delhi-NCR. Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Raghav Chadha also slammed the BJP over the absence of other senior officials of MCDs, DDA and Union Environment Ministry at the meeting. “Today everyone can see images of Gambhir with his friends at Indore having Jalebi and Poha on social media. He has time to go out with his friends but not to attend a serious meeting like this on air pollution?" Chadha said, adding that Gambhir should quit from his post for failing the people of Delhi.
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The East Delhi MP, in his defence, said that he should be judged by his work and not by "propaganda or false narrative".
“I have not entered politics for money but I do have a family to support,” Gambhir said in a note that he shared on Twitter. “I believe in hard earned money and not using public funds to further political ambitions. Making my commercial engagements (which were entered into before I had become an MP) an issue to mask the incompetence and political greed of their leader is the saddest thing the party, which claims to represent honest people, can do.”
However, AAP leader Atishi Marlena was quick to counter his 'defence'. “Our Hon'ble MP claims he skipped a meeting on air pollution in order to earn a living. In the same breath, he says he pledges his salary as an MP for his constituency. Going in circles like a jalebi to defend the indefensible!”
Gambhir, interestingly, was the richest among the Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi, with declared assets worth Rs 147 crore. He had shown an income of nearly Rs 12.4 crore in the income tax returns filed for 2017-18.
When asked about the absence of his ministry officials from the meeting, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said he would find out the details and investigate. "We are always very serious about pollution. I have emphasised that pollution is not only Delhi's problem. I have ordered a joint-action plan. Teams are working with coordination," he said.