Vinai Kumar Saxena is the first Lieutenant Governor of Delhi who is not from a bureaucratic background. Till Saxena assumed office in May 2022, Delhi has had only civil servants as the head of the administration. The exceptions being Air Vice Marshal HL Kapur, Romesh Bhandari and Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh, who held office between 1985-1990.
While Kapur and Singh were from the Indian Air Force, Bhandari was a career diplomat. The remaining either belonged to the Indian Civil Service (ICS), its successor IAS or IPS. Thus Saxena, who has a corporate background, becomes the only non-government official to hold this position.
In the past 76 years of post-independence existence, Delhi has had an effective legislative set-up only for the past 30 years with a Chief Minister, with well-defined role, in the office.
In these 30 years, the legislative head has had her/his friction with the head of administration. However, during these skirmishes, the Lieutenant Governors, the true hard-boiled bureaucrats they all have been, chose silence over loud speak.
Saxena, on the other hand, during the past two years has on several occasions allowed himself to be provoked, which may not have always gone down with the people. He in doing so has created the image of himself of being the handmaiden of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Though in a Union Territory set-up, the head of administration is directly accountable to the Centre but seldom have these functionaries taken up political cudgels against the government in the public domain.
His recent outpouring at a university convocation function, the Lieutenant Governor was unabashedly candid in expressing his relief at the Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal quitting the Chief Minister’s office.
Saxena last week said, “I am happy today that Delhi’s CM is a woman. I can confidently say she is a thousand times better than her predecessor.”
He was addressing students of Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women at the seventh convocation ceremony.
While making the comment, Saxena smilingly looked at Atishi, who interestingly did not respond to the Lieutenant Governor’s comments.
Speaking after Saxena at the convocation, in a departure from the AAP’s standards of public discourse, Atishi decided to remain quite on the matter raising many an eye-brows. Not to forget that same Saxena had denied Atishi the permission to hoist the national flag on Independence Day and instead asked her then colleague Kailash Gahlot to do the honours.
Gahlot recently resigned as Minister in Atishi’s government and has crossed over to the BJP. It may not be a mere coincidence that Gahlot is actively participating in demonstrations against Kejriwal but has so far refrained to speak against Atishi. And now the Lieutenant Governor singing paeans to Atishi, whose performance in the public perception being zero on the scale of 10, is indeed intriguing.
The Lieutenant Governor did not stop there and took to social media platform X, to inform about the event. He said that this convocation marks a celebration of progress and the vital role women play in shaping a technologically advanced and equitable future. Such bonhomie between the Raj Niwas and the CM office has started whispers in the corridors.
But coming to moot point, in the politically surcharged environment with the state assembly polls just three months away, what made the L-G make a ‘politically significant’ statement? More importantly, does it behove the constitutional office to play a pro-active role as the agent of the ruling party at the Centre. Such situations are new to the politics of the national Capital.
With Saxena in office, it’s now clear that the Raj Niwas would play a pro-active role in the upcoming state assembly polls. Arvind Kejriwal in addition to the loss of credibility and anti-incumbency will find Raj Niwas’ activities as additional roadblock in retaining power in the national Capital. Interesting times ahead!
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice