As was being expected last evening, the Centre
came with a notification backing the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung in
the latest episode of the war between him and the Delhi chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal.
The notification, dated May 21, issued by the
Ministry of Home Affairs, to which the Delhi L-G reports, said the L-G was
right in exercising his powers and he did not violate the Constitutional norms.
The gazette notification by the MHA says, “It is clear that the National Capital Territory
of Delhi does not have its own State Public Services. Thus ‘Services’ will fall
within this category.”
The notification further says, “Subject to his control and further orders,
the Lieutenant-Governor of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, shall in
respect of matters connected with ‘Public Order’, ‘Police’, ‘Land’ and ‘Services’
as stated hereinabove, exercise the powers and discharge the functions of the
Central Government, to the extent delegated to him from time to time by the
President.”
And the notification says it is the discretion of
the L-G to consult the CM ‘in regard to the matter of Services’. In other
words, if he doesn’t feel it fit to consult the CM in case of any bureaucratic appointment,
the CM cannot question him.
The notification, therefore, absolves the Delhi
L-G in the ongoing row and puts the onus of the whole controversy on the Delhi
Government.
Obviously, Kejriwal is not going to accept it.
So, on a day, when the Centre backed the L-G and
MHA’s notification spoke on the L-G’s behalf, Kejriwal targeted the Modi
government on the whole issue, alleging it of running Delhi by proxy. He
tweeted, “BJP first lost Del elections. Today's notification shows BJP's
nervousness abt our anti-corruption efforts. BJP again lost today”.
He equaled Modi’s PMO with London and Najeeb Jung
as the Viceroy who was taking orders from the PMO to run Delhi. Clearly, apart
from reacting to the step taken by the Centre, it was also yet another attempt
to convert this whole episode into a ‘Modi Vs Kejriwal’ fight. Now, with a
changed and mainstreamed Kejriwal, that is not going to happen. Majority of
those who voted for him take his words with ‘fistfuls of salt’ now. And within
100 days only.
And it also tells us the war (or the latest
letter war) is not over yet. Those who know Kejriwal (and obviously everyone
knows him now), the MHA notification may even exacerbate it.
After all, apart from hitting him on the core
issue, it also says that the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi
Government, an important unit in the ‘Kejriwal’ scheme of things, cannot ‘take cognizance of offences under against
officers, employees and functionaries of the Central Government’.
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