The tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena took a turn for the worse on Monday as MLAs of the ruling party and the Opposition BJP decided to stage overnight protests on the Delhi Assembly premises on Monday night.
The AAP MLAs are demanding a probe against Lieutenant Governor for allegedly putting pressure on KVIC employees for allegedly changing demonetised currency notes during his term as the KVIC chairman in 2016. They alleged that the notes didn’t belong to the KVIC.
In a statement, Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said BJP MLAs have been forced to sit on a dharna as they were not heard in the Assembly. All of the BJP’s eight MLAs were not part of the proceedings of the Delhi Assembly’s Special Session on Monday and Friday as they were marshalled out of the House on both days.
The BJP is seeking sacking of Manish Sisodia and also protesting against Deputy Speaker’s action to marshal out Opposition MLAs from the House.
Also, the BJP demanding action against Satyendar Jain over alleged corruption.
Meanwhile, Raj Niwas sources have denied the allegations made against the LG, saying they would issue a detailed note on Tuesday. Sources said Saxena himself had initiated action against KVIC employees when he learned of allegations about irregularity in changing of demonetised currency notes.
During the House proceedings on Monday, the ruling party legislators trooped to the Well of the Assembly, alleging that the “scam” worth `1,400 crore took place in KVIC when Saxena was its chairman.
They demanded his resignation, besides a probe by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged scam.
Defending Saxena, the BJP said AAP leaders are levelling these allegations “to take revenge” against him for exposing the excise scam.
“Ever since LG Saxena assumed office, he has been questioning the Government over a range of issues such as the excise policy and construction of classrooms in Delhi Government schools. They (AAP leaders) are doing this to take revenge and divert attention from their wrongdoings,” BJP’s Rohini MLA Vijender Gupta told reporters in the Assembly.
The House witnessed a rocky session on Monday, forcing four back-to-back adjournments, as AAP legislators trooped to the Well raising slogans against Saxena and holding up placards calling for his “arrest”.
Amid the slogan shouting, Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla adjourned the House till 11 am.
“Our MLAs will stay overnight in the Assembly to demand a probe against the LG. From 7 pm onwards, they will sit near the Gandhi statue to protest against the scam by Delhi LG during the time of demonetisation,” AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj told a Press conference.
AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak alleged in the Assembly that Saxena had put pressure on KVIC employees to exchange demonetised notes worth Rs 1,400 crore in 2016, when he was the chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
Speaking during a special session of the Assembly, Pathak said, “In 2016, Saxena forced Khadi’s cashiers to exchange his old unaccounted bank notes for him.”
Earlier, speaking on the “Confidence Motion”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that ‘instead of focusing on public welfare the BJP Government was helping its “billionaire friends”. The Chief Minister said the BJP could not poach any of the AAP MLAs but they will now try to topple the Jharkhand Government in the next 15 days. He said the only reason to table this Confidence Motion is to prove that every AAP MLA, Minister and volunteer is committed to the cause of honesty and would never be sold to these parties.
Kejriwal also linked the collapse of the non-BJP Governments in the States - over the last few years - to inflation and said resources that are earned by raising taxes on petrol and diesel go as expenses towards “Operation Lotus”.
“Each time a Government’s collapse is planned, fuel prices go up. The Governments collapsed in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh… and now it may happen in Jharkhand,” Kejriwal said.
Responding to Kejriwal’s Confidence Motion, Delhi BJP leaders called it a ploy to distract people’s attention from “liquor excise and education scams”. The BJP questioned who had asked for it in the Delhi Assembly.
The BJP’s information technology cell head Amit Malviya tweeted, “Who has asked for a Confidence Motion in Delhi Assembly? No one. It is just a desperate ploy to distract from the liquor excise and education scams, somehow obfuscate truth. There is no threat to Kejriwal’s Govt. Question is - will media relent or wilt under pressure of ad money?”
BJP MP from West Delhi Parvesh Verma tweeted, “Kejriwal is a headline hunter. He lives and loses by his media image. The liquor scam has exposed his corrupt government. He tried to change the narrative to some imaginary plot to break AAP, but questions on the liquor scam refuse to go away.”
“Corruption is in the DNA of Kejriwal. It’s not AAP sarkar but PAAP ki sarkar (Government of sins). He and (Manish) Sisodia are experts in corruption… Where did this money go? Did it go in your pocket, Kejriwal? Did you take note of the report? What action did you take on it?” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference.
As he moved the Confidence Motion, Kejriwal, whose party AAP has a huge majority in the Assembly, explained the reason behind it. “They asked me why it was required - the Confidence Motion. But this is to show that this Government stands strong and holds its ground,” he said.
Kejriwal said the Central Government is the most corrupt as it is “buying MLAs” by taxing the common people, while it is waiving loans of its billionaire friends.
“How do they do that? We have heard that they have paid as much as Rs 50 crores to a single MLA in some States. But they were offering Rs 20 crores in Delhi. They have horse traded 277 MLAs of other parties so far and if we keep the amount per MLA to be Rs 20 crores, the total comes to Rs 5,550 crores. And when we add Rs eight hundred crores they kept for Delhi, the amount reaches Rs 6,300 crores,” alleged Kejriwal.
Speaking in favour of the Confidence Motion, Pathak said when the LG was the chairman of the KVIC, he had forced his employees to exchange unaccounted cash during demonetisation.
“This money had no connection to KVIC but it was exchanged under this pretence by coercing the cashiers to do it. They stated on record how Khadi wasn’t accepting any old notes after demonetisation but they were made to exchange old notes given by then chairman VK Saxena and his men,” Pathak said.