NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused the BJP of backstabbing the people of the city after Lok Sabha passed a bill to replace an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the city government.
Kejriwal lashed out at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and urged people not to believe anything the PM says. “BJP always promised to give full statehood to Delhi. In 2014, Modi himself said that on becoming the prime minister, he would give full statehood to Delhi. But today these people stabbed the people of Delhi in the back. Don’t believe anything said by Modiji from now on,” he said.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday amid a walkout by opposition parties. The Delhi services bill was passed after a nearly four-hour-long debate which was replied to by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Act is meant to nullify the impact of a Supreme Court judgment earlier this year, which gave the elected Delhi government extensive rights over IAS officials in the territory. The Supreme Court had held that the Delhi government has the power to make laws and administer civil services in the national capital and that the Lieutenant Governor's role was to either act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers or implement their decisions. The new law will give more power to the LG.
Shah made it clear that the Centre has power to make laws on Union territories and Delhi, being a Union Territory, the Centre enjoys full rights to make rules also. As the House debated on the bill, Kejriwal said earlier in the day that Home Minister Shah did not have a single valid argument in favour of bringing the bill, and asserted that the opposition bloc INDIA will never let it happen.
Initiating the debate in Lok Sabha, Shah said the BJP and the Congress had ruled the national capital without any confrontation, but problems arose only in 2015 when a government came that had no intention to serve but only to fight with the Centre.
In his first reaction after the introduction of the bill, Kejriwal said this is a bill to enslave people of Delhi.
“Today I heard Amit Shah speaking in Lok Sabha on the bill which snatches away the rights of the people of Delhi. They do not have a single valid argument to support the bill,” he said.