New Delhi: After the chaos and clashes between AAP and BJP councillors that led to the adjournment of the MCD House on the first day of proceedings, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter to Lt Governor V.K. Saxena.
“The elected govt is directly accountable to the people. Please allow the elected govt to work for the people,” said Kejriwal in the letter to the LG.
Underlining last few days of development, the Chief Minister said, “Hon’ble LG is directly issuing orders on practically every subject irrespective of whether it is reserved or transferred, irrespective of whether Hon’ble LG has the powers to do that or not. Hon’ble LG issues directions directly to the Chief Secretary who in turn gets them implemented completely bypassing and ignoring the elected govt.”
“One would ask why are the officers implementing LG’s illegal orders? Because Hon’ble LG has complete control over the bureaucracy. LG has power to transfer, suspend or take any other action against any employee of Delhi govt. Unfortunately, elected govt of Delhi has no control over employees. Therefore, Delhi govt officers do not have the courage to say no to LG even if his orders are completely bizarre,” he said further in the letter.
Talking about the nominated councillors for MCD over which clashes erupted on Friday, Kejriwal said, “Till date, for the last many decades, these 10 members were always nominated by the elected govt of Delhi. This practice was followed by the previous LG, Sh Anil Baijal also. However, the present LG, one morning, dictated 10 names (obviously all with BJP background) and directed the Chief Secretary to issue notification. Chief Secretary complied.”
He said that the elected govt came to know from the newspapers. Since this is a transferred subject, as per the Constitution, it is the elected govt which had the power to nominate these members, he claimed.
“Tradition has been that the senior-most member of the House, irrespective of party affiliations, is nominated by the state govt for this job. This time, one morning, Hon’ble LG dictated the name of some BJP councillor and directed the Chief Secretary to issue notification. As always, the Chief Secretary obliged. Interestingly, the person nominated is not the senior-most member,” reads the letter.
Therefore, the erstwhile tradition was also thrown to the winds. The elected govt was completely out of picture though the Constitution empowers the elected govt to nominate the first presiding officer since it is a transferred subject, he said.
“Your Excellency, individuals like me and you are too small. This country is important. India is important. Our democracy, which we got after a long independence struggle, is important. Let’s all work together for the country and to strengthen our democracy. 2 crore people of Delhi elected a govt with such thumping majority to fulfil their dreams,” Kejriwal concluded in the letter.
–IANS