Blaming the Centre for Delhi’s woes has become Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s habit. He must study the constitutional provisions and understand the issues his Government is mandated to govern on. He will then also appreciate the limitations of the Government
A bad workman blames his tools, and that is precisely the case with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Delhi — a Government which has frittered away a brute majority and embarrassed the Delhi electorate with antics that would make even a high-school dropout, cringe. Well, more on all of that, later. First things first. Of late, there has been a huge uproar over G Rohini & Jayant Nath’s judgement of August 4, which clearly established that Delhi is a Union Territory (UT) and the lieutenant Governor (lG) is its administrative head, no less. True, the 69th Amendment (1991) gave Delhi the status of National Capital Territory (NCT). Also, based on recommendations of the Balakrishna Commission, the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Act (GNCTA), came into effect in 1992.
However, that still does not change the fact that Delhi’s federal structure is simply that of a UT and no more. Delhi became a UT with effect from November 1956, and that stays. For those who argue that Delhi is little more than a UT, the point is: The ‘little more’ is irrelevant here because, as per the Article 239AA(3)(a), of GNCTA, 1992, three key subjects of the State list — law & public order, police and land — are not within the purview of the Delhi Government.
Even with respect to ‘services’, the Delhi High Court has upheld the Ministry of Home Affairs’ notification of May 21, 2015, which said that the lG could take all decisions with regard to ‘services’ in Delhi, while accepting the argument that ‘all services under NCT of Delhi which is a Union Territory are governed by Entry 70 of list I alone and thus fall beyond the legislative competence of the legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi’.
What’s more, the legislature and the Council of Ministers are there merely to aid and advise the lieutenant Governor. Obviously, such aid and advice is not binding on the lieutenant Governor. Article 73 of the Constitution mandates that executive power is co-extensive with legislative power and hence, even in respect to Bills passed by the State legislature, the lieutenant Governor enjoys the power to withhold assent, keep Bills for as long as he likes or send them to the Union Government or the President for consideration. This is further cemented by Section 48 of the Act. For instance, setting aside the AAP Government’s decision to appoint commissions of inquiry into allegations against the Delhi & District Cricket Association and the Compressed Natural Gas fitness case, the Bench held that the ‘appropriate Government’ under the Commissions of Inquiry Act was the Union Government with respect to UTs, further cementing the belief that the AAP clearly indulged in constitutional immorality, by breaching its brief.
The next big question is: If indeed lieutenant Governor is the administrative head of Delhi, is AAP responsible for health services and the recent spate of chikungunya deaths in the capitalIJ The answer is ‘yes’. In response to a petition filed in the Delhi High Court in the midst of a raging controversy about non-payment of dues to East Delhi Municipal Corporation workers a few months back, the court opined thus: ‘It (municipal services) is a part of Delhi. What does the Central Government have to do with itIJ The Central Government has nothing to do with it.’
Again, in a recent affidavit filed by the Ministry of Urban Development, the Union Government has said that the three municipal corporations in the capital were ‘under the general superintendence, direction and control of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi’ as mandated by the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. ‘Government’ here implies the elected Government and in this case, it is the Kejriwal regime. The affidavit was submitted before the Bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva on the issue of implementation of the National Building Code.
To simplify matters, as things stand today, (unless the courts decree otherwise in the future), as far as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) goes, while the appointment of the MCD Commissioner, conduct of the house proceedings and dissolution of the corporation are in the hands of the Central Government. But the onus of payment of salaries of MCD’s safai karamcharis and day-to-day functioning of MCD, are primarily with the Delhi Government. The Kejriwal regime cannot brush away the fact that the chikungunya deaths have been largely a result of its governance deficit and sheer negligence.
One has to only look at Chief Minister Kejriwal’s track record to know that he’s somewhere between being a disgruntled rabble-rouser and an incompetent wannabe who wishes to bite off more than he can chew. Tall promises made by the AAP (15 lakh CCTVs, a WiFi-ed Delhi, 1,000 mohalla clinics, 20 junior colleges, 47 fast track courts, 500 new schools, 150 polyclinics,10,000 new hospital beds, disabled -friendly buses et al), are simply a pipe-dream today because Kejriwal’s MlAs are busy doing everything else but governing Delhi with whatever powers they have under the Constitution.
Delhi’s hybrid model has worked effectively in the past, be it under BJP Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma or Madan lal Khurana. Hence, each time Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia cry foul about lack of powers to run Delhi, they are simply trying to pull a fast one on Delhiites, who deserve better than a bunch of bumbling politicians whom the people elected with high hopes. Not only have these MlAs failed to perform, they have made matters worse in being allegedly involved in all sorts of criminal activities ranging from forgery to molestation to rape and fomenting communal disharmony.
When an elected Chief Minister calls the Prime Minister a psychopath and a coward, he is lowering his dignity. Again,when this Chief Minister questions the veracity of the Indian Armed Forces’ surgical strikes against Pakistan, it reminds one of his political desperation. One can only pray that the electorate of Punjab will learn from the jarring experience of Delhi that trusted the AAP and was let down, again and again. If there is someone that has been short-changed even more than the hapless Delhi citizenry, it is that ill-fated and mute broom (jhaadu).
(The writer is a spokesperson for the BJP)