In a response to Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena’s letter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday wrote a letter asking him for the public debate over his interference into the elected government and bypassing the Council of Ministers.
In the letter, Kejriwal stated that in the beginning of the L-G letter, he have sarcastically mentioned “….you have started taking governance in the city seriously…” after my election campaigns. AAP is a national party and as its national convenor, I have to attend to elections campaigns in different parts of the country.
Comparing the campaign of AAP, Delhi CM said that the Prime Minister, Home Minister and many BJP Chief Ministers like Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh, Pushkar Dhami etc were also campaigning for their party at that time in Gujarat and Delhi. Kejriwal also thanked L-G for inviting him for discussions. “I will definitely come. I will fix up a convenient time with your office. However, an important discussion has started in the last few days, which has critical bearings on Indian democracy,” he said.
“I would urge you to kindly make your stand on those issues public. When your goodself unilaterally appointed 10 aldermen, presiding officer and the Haj Committee bypassing the elected Government and directly getting the officers to issue necessary notifications, there was strong public criticism. A statement was issued by your office on January 7 in which you admitted having taken all those actions unilaterally bypassing the Government,” Kejriwal asked.“However, you justify your actions saying that in all those Acts and provisions, it was written that “Administrator/LG shall appoint….” or the Act defined govt as “Administrator/LG”, therefore, those Acts gave you the powers to act eo nominee.
In my letter on same date, which was made public to take this debate forward, I had requested you to kindly make your stand public whether this was your position that from now onwards, on all those subjects where the law uses the words “Administrator/LG”, elected govt would be bypassed/ignored and LG would directly deal with the officers and directly run those departments? For instance, all laws and Acts related to electricity, health, water, education etc - all define the government as “Administrator/LG”.
So, does it mean that from now on, the power department, education department, health department, water department etc - all these will be directly run by you?" Kejriwal questioned."Then what would the elected govt do? Won’t that be contrary to all SC judgements where it has been repeatedly said that LG is bound by aid and advice of the Council of Ministers on all transferred subjects? Whereas we could discuss all these issues privately over tea, however, these questions are very critical for the future of Delhi and the whole country. Therefore, a public discussion on this issue will be useful. We wait for your response," Delhi CM added.