Kejriwal to Centre on NCT Bill

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to the central government on Wednesday to withdraw the Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, “on behalf of the people of Delhi and the country”. Addressing a meeting at Jantar Mantar organised by the Aam Aadmi Party to protest against the controversial move by the Centre that would effectively curtail the powers of the elected government of Delhi, the CM said, “I would like to appeal to the central government to withdraw the law even now. Don’t rob the people of their power; don’t betray the people.”

While the chief minister mentioned the Bharatiya Janata Party, he refrained from directly taking on either union home minister Amit Shah or Prime Minister Narendra Modi like he used to in his previous days as a fledgling politician.

Kejriwal also referred to the timing of the move by the central government, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, to argue that this is not the “gift” that the country deserves. Recalling the role of icons of the freedom struggle like Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Baba Saheb Ambedkar, the chief minister said they sacrificed their lives to gain freedom from the British and to establish India as a democracy and would not have imagined that after 75 years of independence, a government would come that would snatch the development of the people. Kejriwal reiterated his plea, “I appeal to the central government not to indulge in such dark and dirty deeds on the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, don’t betray the country.” The CM then went on to assure Delhiites that the work of his government would continue.

Taking a dig at the patriotism of the BJP and indirectly calling it a traitor, the chief minister asked, “What is true patriotism?” He then went on to answer his own question: “True patriotism is when good work done by anyone, ruling party or the opposition, is supported. But if I am a traitor, I would stall the good work. If I am an enemy of the country, I would stall the other party’s (good) work.”

The GNCTD (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in Lok Sabha by union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy on Monday.

Kejriwal highlighted two proposed changes that the legislation seeks to bring. “In this law, it has been written that from now on ‘Delhi Government’ would mean ‘L-G’. If Delhi government comes to mean the L-G, then where do we stand? Where do the people stand? Where do you stand? Where do the people of the country stand?” he said.

Arguing that the new bill almost disenfranchised the people of Delhi, Kejriwal asked, “If Delhi government means L-G, where would the people of Delhi go? Where will the chief minister go? Why were elections conducted at all? Why did people stand in queues and vote? What is the meaning of that vote?”

Calling the move a betrayal of the people’s vote where in Delhi AAP had won 62 of the total 70 assembly seats in elections last year, the chief minister termed it a betrayal of the people, and wrong done to them.

The second point that was highlighted by the chief minister was the provision that all files would now have to be sent to the lieutenant governor, which is contrary to a 2018 Constitution Bench verdict of the Supreme Court. He said, “…it has been written that all files will go to the L-G. When we had formed the government, all files used to be sent to the L-G. In 2018, an SC verdict stated that in Delhi there is an elected government and the elected government should have the power; our country is a democracy.” He reiterated that the SC had said that no files would have to be sent to the L-G for consent. The 2018 apex court verdict had stated that the concurrence of the L-G is not required on any files except those pertaining to land, public order, and police, but the L-G had to be kept informed.

“They do not respect the people, they do not respect the Supreme Court, they do not respect democracy, they do not respect the Constitution; this is wrong,” said Kejriwal, targeting the BJP.

The Delhi chief minister recalled the spectacular performance of AAP in the assembly elections, where it had won 67 out of 70 seats in 2015 and 62 of 70 seats in 2020, and the poor performance of the BJP in the recent MCD bypolls where the party failed to open its account, to emphasise that Delhiites have overwhelmingly voted for the Aam Aadmi Party and not the BJP to represent them. Kejriwal went on to argue that despite the verdict of the people, the BJP wants to rule Delhi through the backdoor.

The chief minister argued that the BJP’s hunger to rule by hook or crook is not limited to just Delhi. “They conduct elections, if they lose they buy off MLAs of other parties and bring down the government… haven’t they done this across the country? But in Delhi, despite their best efforts, AAP MLAs could not be bought and therefore they want to bring in a law to finish the power of the people,” he said.

All speakers, including deputy CM Manish Sisodia, cabinet ministers Gopal Rai and Rajendra Pal Gautam made a recurring point — that the bill was a bid to stall the “good work” that is being done by AAP even as the “Kejriwal model of development is finding increasing resonance among people”. This was repeated by the chief minister also, who said, “This law is to stall the good work that is being done in education; they do not want AAP to do good work in Delhi as this poses a problem for them in Surat, in Karnataka…wherever elections are held in panchayats and Nagar Nigam, AAP is steadily winning seats.” He said that instead of stalling the good work that is being done in Delhi, the BJP should compete with the Aam Aadmi Party and, citing the example of the free electricity scheme in Delhi, the CM said that if electricity were made free in Gujarat, AAP would not win a single seat in Surat.