Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday came out in support of the contractual employees terminated from the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and vowed to reinstate them.

The statement of the former Delhi chief minister came a day after DCW Assistant Secretary Gautam Majumdar issued an order to remove all its contractual employees with immediate effect.

The order was issued in compliance with the April 2024 directive from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development with the approval of the Delhi lieutenant governor.

Referring to the removal of the contractual employees from the DCW, Kejrwal in a post on X wrote, “I promise my sisters who have lost their jobs that I will do whatever it takes to ensure they are reinstated.”

Senior AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia slammed the BJP for the move calling it “disgraceful and inhumane”.

Talking to reporters, he said, “Before Diwali, the BJP has rendered hundreds of families without a breadwinner by taking away their jobs. The fact that the sin has been committed ahead of Diwali makes it all the more shameful.”

Sisodia said, “While giving speeches or making manifestos (for elections), they (BJP leaders) talk of providing jobs, but once the elections are over they render the people jobless. They have removed the employees who have been working on a contract basis for 30-30 years in such a cavalier manner that reflects the true character of the BJP. It is disgraceful and inhumane to take away the jobs of so many people right before Diwali.”

“This incident itself proves that the BJP is against the agenda of employment. Instead of giving jobs, the government is busy taking away the jobs of those who are already employed,” he added.

Questioning the BJP’s commitment to providing employment, Sisodia said, “The workers have been doing an excellent job, helping women for the past 30 years. But the BJP has taken their jobs without considering their service in one stroke, that too, right before Diwali,” he lamented.

Asserting that the AAP and its government firmly stand with these people, Sisodia said, “We will do it whatever we can to reinstate them.”

Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai said, “Arvind Kejriwal has promised that all the sisters who were terminated from the DCW, all those people who were harassed by the BJP, and all those whose livelihood has been affected, their pain will be felt and their woes will be attended to.”

“Slowly, one by one, the work that had been stalled is being resumed. We are already working on reinstatement of the people who have been wronged in the past and will continue to do so,” he said.