Parvesh Verma, Delhi’s Public Works Minister, slapped a citizen in Tilak Nagar on Sunday while inspecting a road surface. The incident, captured on video, shows the minister pushing down a phone and striking a young man who was filming AAP MLA Jarnail Singh pulling up the freshly laid asphalt. Verma has not apologized.
In a video statement, Verma admitted the event but refused to accept moral responsibility. "Jo hua wo nahi hona chahiye tha," he said, arguing that anyone would have reacted similarly in that moment of anger. He claimed the young man was a 'goon' for Arvind Kejriwal and that AAP workers had abused his family. None of these allegations have been verified by police, yet they form the backbone of his defense.
The silence on an apology has drawn sharp criticism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has built his political brand on the concept of the 'pradhan sevak,' or chief servant, since 2014. A sevak who slaps a citizen owes that person an apology. Verma’s response was justification, not contrition. He called the clip lacking context, a defense that fails when the context is a minister assaulting a member of the public.
The incident is inextricably linked to his father, Sahib Singh Verma. In 2002, Sahib Singh resigned as BJP national vice-president after the party lost the Delhi municipal elections. He told party president Jana Krishnamurthy he was 'owning moral responsibility' for the defeat. Twenty-four years later, the son faced a simpler test. The father took blame for a citywide rout shaped by many hands. The son was asked to own a specific, individual act on camera.
Sahib Singh’s 2002 letter warned that growing indiscipline would damage the party. Parvesh Verma has explained, accused, and counter-accused. He has done everything except own the act. The police are now investigating the young man’s allegation that he was grabbed by the neck and threatened. If provocation is proved, it does not erase the minister’s duty to apologize. The next step is a police report, but the political damage is already done.