A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exchanged heated arguments related to free welfare schemes, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said Sitharaman was trying to scare the public by saying that the free welfare schemes will destroy the country.

He asked Sitharaman to study the models of other countries and how they have become rich economically by providing welfare schemes to the public. At a Press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, he claimed there are two models of governance. One is the “Dostwadi” model and the other is investing in public welfare schemes. “Dostwadi Government” thinks waiving off taxes worth Rs 5 lakh crore and loans worth Rs 14 lakh crore for super-rich friends would bring development but deprives the common man of facilities like health and education. They do 'Dostwadi' politics (for welfare of friends) and we do politics for the common people," the Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader said.

Sisodia also said that Sitharaman tried to scare people by claiming that spending Government money on public welfare will destroy India and urged the Centre to invest in citizens.  “I want to ask madam to study the schemes/models of other countries and how they have become rich economically by giving free welfare schemes to the public,” he added. “UP, Madhya Pradesh and other States where the BJP is in power have huge fiscal deficiency. But the Delhi Government, despite providing free welfare schemes, has surplus revenue and has increased in the last seven years…we are not only saying this, the CAG is also saying the same,” Sisodia added.

Sisodia said, "The BJP terms welfare schemes for the public 'free ki rewari (sweets)' but we call it investing in our people. I urge them to invest in the citizens of the country instead of playing 'Dostwadi' politics."

Addressing a Press conference, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said that the Modi Government has decreased corporate tax from 30 per cent to 22 per cent to help their super-rich friends, if it hadn't done this, then they would not have had to impose GST on daily commodities.

“PM Modi travels in airplanes worth thousands of crores using public money, MLAs-MPs get bungalows & electricity-water for free and when CM Arvind Kejriwal gives free-of-cost electricity-water-education to the public, they call it freebies,” he said.