NEW DELHI: The relentless clashes between the elected government of AAP and Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena have become a constant talking point in the national capital. Back-to-back allegations and new charges of plausible scams with reactions, protests and letter wars have made headlines on a daily basis. The confrontation between the two escalated with the AAP coming to power on December 28, 2013.
The AAP has locked horns with all the L-Gs, from Najeeb Jung, Anil Baijal, or at present Saxena. However, ever since L-G Saxena assumed office, the tussle over constitutional authority has intensified.
The AAP has recently moved the Supreme Court to seek the timely election of the mayor and the deputy mayor for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as well as a direction to restrain the councillors nominated to the House by the L-G from voting. The AAP government has also recently accused the L-G of bypassing the elected government by issuing prosecution sanctions.
AAP MLA Somnath citing late BJP leader Arun Jaitley's address in parliament to summarise the tussle, said “This is a fight between the selected and the elected.”
“What L-G and BJP are doing is a complete disregard to the constitutional democracy. The L-G is a pawn of the saffron party and it is using him as a backdoor way to govern Delhi and discredit the elected government. Our all out-of-the-box initiatives like training of teachers in Finland are being road locked by Saxena to achieve a sadistic pleasure of winning a dirty political game,” he said.
“The country is divided into haves and have-nots. We (AAP) are blurring that line and it has perturbed the BJP. If this keeps going on, then the constitution will be in danger. What is the point of an election when a party takes a back door to rule?” Bharti added. BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor admitted that the tussle has created a crisis for the smooth running of public affairs.
“Whenever such a situation arises, the state of affairs goes into chaos. There is no doubt that the city administration must be suffering. But one also needs to identify the real perpetrator behind this scenario. The AAP government led by Kejriwal is in power for over 8 years now. What they have done is just play around with the rules and regulations to keep their control over the institution. A stern hand was needed to deal with the mockery they have made of the system. L-G VK Saxena is only rectifying the wrongdoings of this government within the purview of the constitution. The AAP should go by the book of the law. Only then normalcy can prevail,” he said.
Amid all the thrill and drama unfolding every day, a victim lies, on whom, neither the administrator nor the elected government is putting its focus on — the state of affairs. Atul Goel, president of the United Residents Joint Action (URJA) Force said Delhi is suffering due to the ugly turn of events between the two heads (L-G and CM).
“There are many things which don’t get accounted for the lack of decision making. People spend lakhs of rupees on vehicles but what they get is pot-holed roads to drive on,” he said.
Referring to Kejriwal’s recent march from the Legislative Assembly to the L-G House for stopping the government teachers from going on a training trip to Finland, he said “parties (political) here are running the government as well as doing activism. We did not vote them to power for being an activist. They (leaders) must serve the public now. If this keeps happening, the public may soon lose confidence in the idealism of constitutional democracy,” Goel added.
BS Vohra, President, of East Delhi RWA Joint Federation, said L-G and CM are two sides of the same coin. One is authorised by the Constitution while another is voted to power by the general public. However, they both are equally responsible to run the state of affairs smoothly. Why can’t they take a moment to resolve the differences for the sake of people?
“Water logging has been the legacy issue of the city affecting residents from an upscale society to slum clusters. Pollution in Yamuna river is rising every year and roads are seeming more like volcanic craters,” he asked. Delhi-based advocate and social activist Vineet Jindal said amid the growing tussle between L-G and AAP, the city residents have been left on their own.“Both L-G and AAP should work for the upliftment of residents and not squabble over trivial stuff,” he added.
But apart from optics and politics, what is the bone of contention of the tussle between L-G and the Delhi government? In 2021, the Central government brought an amendment to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, which gave supremacy to the L-G over the elected government. According to this, the government is to refer to the L-G any law promulgated by the Assembly and the Assembly cannot frame rules or set up committees to consider day-to-day administration or conduct any inquiries.
The Act makes it clear that the rules or committees that came into existence before the amended Act became operational shall be void. The amended law makes the opinion of the L-G mandatory for any executive action and maintains that the L-G has the power to reserve for consideration any Act or matters outside the purview of the Assembly. The amendment is a way of bypassing the legal or constitutional powers of the elected government which has been the prime worry for the AAP government.
The Delhi government has challenged the amendment in the Supreme Court and claimed that it was done to give the L-G executive power through the back door. Article 239AA of the Constitution recognizes Delhi as the National Capital Territory having L-G and an Assembly allowed to legislate on all other matters other than three excluded subjects – land, law and order and police, where the Centre alone can legislate.
Endless conflicts
Feedback unit Snoopgate
Proposed in 2015 by the Kejriwal government, the Feed Back Unit was set up on February 1, 2016. The unit was given an established fund of `1 crore and named Secret Service Fund. The CBI report alleged that 40 per cent of the FBU reports were about “political intelligence”.
Blocking foreign trips
The AAP and the L-G also locked horns over sending teachers of Delhi government schools to Finland for training. The L-G’s office denied that it rejected the government’s proposal, saying it only advised the state to record the cost-benefit analysis to assess the effectiveness of such programs in the past.
No clearance for Kejriwal’s Singapore visit
The L-G had also denied Kejriwal a political clearance to travel to Singapore for an event to which he was invited. Saxena had rejected the proposal for the CM to attend the World Cities Summit in Singapore on August 1, claiming that his attendance at the mayors’ conference would set a “bad precedent.”
Liquor Scam
Last year, L-G Saxena recommended a CBI probe against Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who also holds the portfolio of excise minister, alleging him of violations of rules and procedural lapses in the city government’s excise policy 2021-22. His office even accused the Kejriwal government of misrepresenting excise revenues. On August 6, Saxena ordered disciplinary proceedings against 11 officers of the Excise Department, including an IAS officer who headed the department when the policy was rolled out.
Education Scam
Last year in August, Saxena had demanded a report from the chief secretary over the two-and-a-half-year delay in the construction of additional classrooms in Delhi government-run schools. The vigilance department had found gross irregularities and procedural lapses in the execution. The L-G office had written to the chief secretary on August 29 seeking an explanation for the “decline in enrolment and rise in absenteeism in government schools since 2014-15 despite an increase in expenditure on education.’’