New Delhi: Global corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has rebuffed the Aam Aadmi Party for claiming, based on a “unpublished report”, that corruption has come down in Delhi.

Former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has positioned himself as an anti-corruption crusader, had claimed during a CII meet, yesterday, that he had come to know that Transparency International is set to release a report which says that corruption is down in the Delhi Jal Board.

“For 65 years, corruption was not controlled, we have brought it down even if only by 20-30 percent and they say we don’t known how to govern?” Kejriwal had said.

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The first reference to a TI report was made by senior AAP leader Shazia Iilmi. She was quoted in a newspaper report, saying that Transparency International in a report, which has not yet been released, found that corruption is down in Delhi in the past 45 days.

“Transparency International, in a report which hasn’t been released in India yet, says that in the past 45 days corruption has come down in Delhi. This is by itself an achievement of AAP,” she said.

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However, Transparency International India has staunchly denied authoring any such report on Delhi, thereby exposing the tall claims made by AAP over its track record during the 49 days it was in power.

Ashutosh Kumar Mishra, executive director, Transparency International India, in a press release, denied the existence of any such report.

“The information shared by Ms Shazia Ilmi is factually incorrect. We have not undertaken any study on corruption in Delhi and so there is no question of any such published or unpublished report,” the press release said.

Essentially, the issue is not that much about whether corruption has come down in Delhi or not, the expose on the TI report bluff has damaged AAP’s reputation and uncovered its intent to gain political mileage over issues that relate to the ‘Aam Aadmi’.

Delhi had given the AAP a chance to govern, but it chose to abandon the responsibility and has set its eyes on Parliament.  The Aam Aadmi Party later issued a clarification. Senior party leader Manish Sisodia said there was “some confusion” on the report.

Another senior leader Gopal Rai said, “ Nobody has the auqaat to question the party on the issue of corruption.”