AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday accused the BJP and the Congress of “destroying the education system” in a no-holds-barred speech more than two months after his party was routed in the Delhi Assembly elections.

Speaking at an event at the AAP headquarters here to commemorate B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, Kejriwal said: “I used to wonder why our education system has not improved in 75 years…. I used to think that they do not know how, they are unable to. But the way they are destroying Delhi’s education system has fully convinced me that both these parties have deliberately, over 75 years, kept this country illiterate… (and) poor as part of a conspiracy to create a vote bank.”

According to census data, India’s literacy rate rose from 18.33 per cent in 1951 to 74.4 per cent in 2011.

According to last year’s economic survey, per capita income at constant prices in 1950-51 stood at ₹12,493 against ₹1,12,358 in 2024-25 (advance estimates).

“They don’t love Babasaheb…. It is their compulsion that they must make a show of respect to Babasaheb for the votes of Scheduled Castes,” the former Delhi chief minister added.

Kejriwal named the BJP in his speech but not the Congress, an AAP ally. However, the party’s X handle tweeted a clip of his speech with the caption: “Both BJP and Congress have destroyed this country.”

AAP’s top Dalit leader and former minister Rajendra Pal Gautam quit Kejriwal’s cabinet in 2022 after he participated in an annual public recitation of Ambedkar’s vows. The BJP had used the incident before the Gujarat Assembly polls to polarise voters against the AAP for being “anti-Hindu.” Gautam joined the Congress last year.