BENGALURU: Following the fracas over the deployment of bureaucrats to welcome political leaders during the Opposition leaders’ meeting in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18, the Aam Aadmi Party supported the Congress government and slammed the BJP and JDS.
AAP communications head Brijesh Kalappa echoed the Congress that the officers were on protocol duty. “A number of sitting chief ministers -- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu CM Stalin and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren -- were visiting the state. What is wrong with IAS officers participating in protocol duty to receive them?” he told the media.
“They are not nobodies as the BJP and JDS are projecting them to be. Tejasvi Yadav is Deputy CM of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah are former chief ministers, Sitaram Yechury and D Raja are former Union ministers. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are former AICC presidents,” he said, countering the BJP’s remark that “these leaders don’t deserve IAS officers to participate in protocol duties”.
He said IAS officers carry out this duty, and it is done in other states too. “When CMs or former CMs or former Union ministers visit other states, it is the practice and tradition of our country to welcome them. IAS officers are in public service and have not descended from heaven,” Kalappa said.
Terming it incorrect to politicise etiquette, he said of the 38 parties that participated in the meeting in Delhi, called by the NDA, 26 parties do not have even one member in the Lok Sabha, and 10 of the parties did not participate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
There are only nine MPs from the eight parties put together, and 11 of the parties have not received recognition. Can it not be said that it is disrespectful for the sitting Prime Minister to participate with such people?” He condemned BJP and JDS members for ruining the House without discussing severe problems like drought, irrigation projects, the plight of mango growers etc