So, Mr. Kejriwal is going to do
it again.
Chances are and as he has
threatened, tomorrow morning, a Monday morning, when the third week of the
first month of 2014 begins, he (with his ministers and MLAs) is going to sit on
dharna/sit-in (let’s see if turns out to be a fast protest) demanding suspension
for four officers of the Delhi Police, who allegedly, according to them (AAP),
didn’t carry out the duty they were supposed to do.
The Union Government handles the ‘law
and order’. The Delhi Development Authority is under the control of the
Lieutenant-Governor and not the chief minister. All the three municipal
corporations of Delhi are not under the Delhi chief minister. Then
there are other sticky issues.
This distribution of power may be
debatable but one thing is sure about it that it hurts the ego of every chief
minister of Delhi ,
irrespective of the political affiliation.
And Arvind Kejriwal is no exception.
He could have been, given by his promise of introducing a ‘politics of change’,
but he is proving it fast that he is just yet another routine politician.
And to change that, he needs to
show us he meant to walk the talk, and that has to happen soon.
Anyway, about his ‘dharna’
beginning tomorrow, in North Block, outside the office of the Union Home
Minister - he is demanding heads of four policemen – and he is demanding the
Delhi Police be placed under the Delhi Government.
Now, that cannot be done.
Delhi, being the capital city,
houses the most important installations of the nation, the President Estate,
the Parliament, the prime-minister’s house, embassies and high commissions,
offices of the international organization including the United Nations, central
commands of the security forces and many others.
The Union Government has to take
care of it directly, and to do that effectively and efficiently, it needs the
direct control of the civic interface of the security apparatus in the city,
the Delhi Police. This cannot be expected from the specialized agencies like
the NSG or the CISF. And for a better coordination, that is a must, the Delhi
Police must remain under the Union Government control.
Sheila Dikshit, a veteran
politician of Congress and the three-term chief minister was on a warpath to
wrest the control of the Delhi Police from her own party government in Centre
but she could not get it. Her politically motivated demand was rightly refused.
And Mr. Kejriwal is doing the
same thing. His ‘politics of change’ is talking the same politics that we have
become so frustrated with.
The issue of going on ‘dharna’ to
demand suspension of four police officers and the demand of control over the
Delhi Police is just yet another questionable aspect on his ‘political conduct’
in the 23 days of his government in Delhi.
Questions are being raised,
rightly, on his promises and the way he is trying to deliver them.
And instead of addressing that,
he is planning yet another show that will add to the quantum of the ‘questions’
only.
And that is not good, for Delhi , for India ,
and for its aspirations of a ‘politics of change’.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
