'Thank God, nightmare is over': Jaitley on AAP govt's exit

Dubbing the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi as the "worst ever", BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said its decision to step down over the issue Jan lokpal was like a "nightmare" finally getting over.

"The nightmare is finally over. The worst ever state government that Delhi has ever witnessed has resigned...Thank God, the nightmare is over," Jaitley wrote on his website.

Claiming that "clever politics and no governance" appeared to be the motto of the AAP government in Delhi, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said the past 49 days witnessed an unconventional government.

"It was a government without an agenda and without an ideology. It was a government committed to populism and demagogue," he said.

Chief Minister Kejriwal resigned last night after being defeated in the assembly on the Jan lokpal Bill and in a political gamble he recommended dissolution of the assembly and holding of fresh polls.

Jaitley said while BJP was a bigger party in the Delhi assembly, AAP had no qualms before accepting ""shamelessly" the Congress support in order to prove the majority. "This was a government without a mandate. It had only 28 seats."

He said most of the AAP MlAs were inexperienced and lacked maturity. "At times, they were outlandish. They had an agitational approach but were foreign to any form of governance...Did the AAP government decide to expand the drinking water connectivity in DelhiIJ

"Did they seriously conceive of a scheme to increase the health care facilities in DelhiIJ Did they ever think of setting up new schools and collegesIJ What about taking Delhi Metro to the next phaseIJ Did the idea of more flyovers and better PWD roads ever cross their thinkingIJ These are all areas which add to the quality of life of those living in a large metropolis. These are real areas of governance," the BJP leader said.

Jaitley claimed the Kejriwal government had "no mind space" for any of the issues flagged by him.

"It concentrated its approach only to agitational issues. It agitated against the Home Minister, against the lt Governor, against the Commissioner of Police and against the African ladies. Its approach was to concoct falsehood and create imaginary enemies ...It had the arrogance to believe that only its leaders were honest and everybody else was compromised," he said slamming the AAP leadership.

He claimed the AAP crafted an exit route for itself after it started losing popularity.

AAP, Jaitley wrote, had realised that its leaders sitting in Sachivalaya were 'a bull in a China shop'. They were more suited to the streets.

He claimed content of the Jan lokpal Bill are not radically different from the Central legislation but it wanted to create a false propaganda that its legislation was a revolutionary one in comparison to the central law.

"It decided to defy the conventional procedure for legislative approval in order to invent a pretext for resignation...The AAP government has exited. It defied the hopes of many who wanted to see an alternative politics emerge. The alternative politics was populism, demagogue, falsehood but no governance," he said.