In what could further escalate rift between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Raj Niwas, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena has asked Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues and the officers of the UT Government to refrain from making any false, baseless and non-verified comments that misleads the citizens.
The LG slammed the Kejriwal Government for repeatedly bluffing and making false statements in the Delhi High Court to hide its failures.
Saxena in an office note to Kejriwal has referred to social media post by the Government functionaries which does not have any truth.
The LG strongly objected to one of the tweets by Education Minister Atishi where she wrote that the LG and the BJP have conspired to stop power subsidy for farmers and advocates.
“For the past few days, the Power Minister and other functionaries of the Government and the party in power have been making blatantly false, misleading, accusatory and defamatory statements in the media to the effect that the subsidy given in the power sector is being stopped by the LG/that the LG is conspiring with the officers to stop power subsidy’. What is even more unfortunate is the fact that such statements have your backing,” Saxena said in his noting.
He has asked the Chief Minister to show any document that establishes that he had suggested withdrawing power subsidy in Delhi.
Taking a serious note of the frequent lies and concealing of facts by the Kejriwal Government in the Delhi High Court in the matter of “Transfer of Special Schools for Children with Disability” to the Education Department and earlier.
“The AAP Government inordinately delayed the file and then misled the Delhi High Court on November 18, 2022 and again on February 17, .2023 saying the file was pending with the LG.
As a matter of fact, the file was deliberately kept pending with the Government/Minister and the file was sent to the LG on March 28, 2023 - over four months after the High Court was misled with false assertions on two different occasions.
“It is alarming that the High Court was repeatedly misled and false information was submitted before the High Court. It is unheard of a government trying to hide its failure by making false statements against a Constitutional Head in the highest Courts of Law and indulging in such perjury,” the LG said in the note.
The LG has directed the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit in the Delhi High Court against the deliberate false statements made by the Delhi Government to mislead the High Court and apprise the court of the factual status in the case.
Earlier in the matter of Reconstitution of the Animal Welfare Board, the AAP Government had submitted the file to the LG on December 14, .2022, just a day before the Delhi High Court was to hear the matter on December 15, 2022, and alleged in the court that the “file was pending with LG for several days”.
“The Chief Minister and his colleagues in the Council of Ministers seem to have developed an unfortunate and deplorable tendency of blatantly misleading on all fora. Be it to the people, the media or even the High Court, substantially baseless and patently false statements and undertakings are furnished by Ministers and the Government through its counsels with impunity, amounting to prima facie, defamation and perjury,” Saxena stated in the note.
“Such false statements by the Delhi Government in the High Court amounts to defamation and perjury. It is alarming that the Delhi High Court is repeatedly being misled by the AAP Government . It is unheard of a Government hiding its failures by making false statements in the highest courts of the country and blatantly indulging in perjury ,” he added.