AAP claim on teachers being told to count dogs false: govt.

Education Minister Ashish Sood on Tuesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of spreading misinformation over its allegation that the government had assigned teachers the responsibility of counting and managing stray dogs.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Sood said AAP leaders were resorting to false claims after having lost the Assembly election. “Instead of accepting defeat, AAP leaders are spreading lies for social media traction,” he said, denying that teachers had been given any such duties. The Minister challenged the party to make public any order supporting its claim.

Later, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal reiterated the allegation in a post on X. “Will teachers in Delhi’s government schools teach children, or will they count dogs on the streets instead? This order from the BJP’s Delhi government exposes their thinking and priorities,” he wrote, accusing the government of “insulting teachers and ruining schools”.

Mr. Kejriwal cited a November 20 order issued by the Education Department, which stated that the “primary focus” of the directive was the “identification, vaccination and sterilisation of stray dogs to ensure safety for students and the public”.

Responding to this, Mr. Sood said the order did not assign teachers any counting or animal-control duties. “We decided that schools should be aware of how to report complaints related to stray dog attacks and ensure that dogs do not enter school premises,” he said. 

Mr. Sood accused AAP of making similar “false claims” in the past. He referred to a tweet from December 25 that alleged the government had ordered action against children who came to schools dressed as Santa Claus. “If AAP has any such order, why is it not making it public?” he said.

‘Politics of lies’

The Minister claimed that the Opposition party had neither carried out substantial work in the education sector nor contributed meaningfully to the city’s development.

“They relied solely on lies, noise and a politics of allegations and counter-allegations,” he said.

AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “By assigning stray dog duties to teachers, the BJP government is openly undermining public education.”