New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and three of his ministers, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai and Satyendra Jain, today converted their all-night protest in the waiting room of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s residence into an indefinite dharna, stating that they will only budge if he accepts their demands.
They are seeking an end to the IAS officers’ strike, punishment for officers who had been on strike for four months and approval for the doorstep delivery of services scheme. It is learnt that Jain has also decided to go on an indefinite fast to press for the demands.
Kejriwal and the ministers had gone to meet Baijal at Raj Niwas last evening. During the meeting, they are learnt to have raised these demands. They also demanded that Baijal act immediately.
As the LG sought time and said that he had other assignments to attend to in the evening, the four ministers decided to stay put in his waiting area. Kejriwal tweeted:
Handed him this letter. LG refuses to take action. LG is under constitutional duty to act. Left wid no option, we have politely told LG that we will not leave till he acts on all points. We hv come out of his chamber n sitting in his waiting room pic.twitter.com/UwsVqqU69g
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 11, 2018
Baijal termed the protest “another dharna without reason” and charged that he had been “threatened” by the chief minister to immediately summon officers to Raj Niwas and end their “strike”.
The LG’s office said Baijal had also conveyed to Kejriwal and his three ministers that there was “no strike” by the officers. He is also learnt to have told the chief minister to win over the trust and confidence of the officers and address their concerns. The mistrust between the two arms of the executive had escalated following an alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash by some AAP legislators at the chief minister’s residence in February.
After the meeting, Baijal left for another scheduled meeting while the chief minister and his ministers stayed put in the waiting room. In the meantime, some of their party leaders, including Atishi Marlena, began a dharna outside the premises. The LG’s office defended his leaving, saying, “Two wrongs never make a right. Since the chief minister and ministers refused to listen to this suggestion and as LG had pre-scheduled appointments at his residence, he had no option but to leave the office.”
The LG’s office’s statement also referred to the issued of doorstep delivery, saying, “The file on the scheme has been lying with civil supplies minister Imran Hussain for nearly three months. Hence, it will only be appropriate to expedite the matter of taking up the proposal with the government of India at the earliest, as as pointed out by the law department, GNCTD that such a scheme requires prior approval of Central Govt. under National Food Security Act, 2013.”
Kejriwal, who had ordered special food from home along with his insulin, slept in the waiting room along with the three ministers at night.
Heavy security deployed outside Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s residence where Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Satyendra Kumar Jain and Gopal Rai are staging a sit-in protest, in New Delhi on Monday, June 11, 2018. Credit: PTI/Ravi Choudhary
In the morning, Sisodia tweeted his greetings to Baijal, stating that the Delhi chief minister and three ministers were still waiting for him in his waiting room.
Good Morning @LtGovDelhi Sir! Delhi CM and 3 ministers are still waiting in your waiting room since yesterday evening.
We hope today you’ll get time from your busy schedule to resolve these three issues . Till then we are waiting…. pic.twitter.com/q4SAZOZMvC— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) June 12, 2018
Kejriwal only retweeted Sisodia’s tweet with a small message:
मेरे प्यारे दिल्लीवासियों।
सुप्रभात!
संघर्ष जारी है। https://t.co/gFWCq0v4pu
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 12, 2018
In the meantime, Marlena also reminded all citizens of the city that it has been 112 days since any IAS officer attended meetings called by ministers. “One can only begin to imagine the kind of havoc this is wreaking on governance in Delhi.”
Senior party leader and MP Sanjay Singh, along with Marlena and spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, later also addressed a press conference in which Singh charged that “LG was a mere piece, while Modi is the mastermind”. Talking to a media group, he had earlier claimed that the LG’s office has been used for the last three years to stop every activity undertaken by the elected government, including those pertaining to mohalla clinics, water and electricity supply, schools and doorstep delivery of rations.
Singh also said that the LG has been stalling the CCTV project despite the Kejriwal government sending the file repeatedly. “We had sent the file twice but nothing happened.”
Likewise, he said the LG and officials were sitting on files pertaining to ration schemes. “Our only fault is that we want to work for the people,” he said.
Investigation agencies are `parrots’
Singh said the BJP was unable to digest the defeat in the assembly elections and has been using investigation agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and police to target AAP. Calling these agencies caged “parrots”, he said while they have been sent to the Delhi Jal Board and mohalla clinics, they should remember that their “owner” could and would change in 2019. “We are only saying that you may investigate us, file cases against us, but nothing would come out. In the alleged onion scam, you could not find anything. Likewise, cases were filed against 25 MLAs but the high court quashed them all,” Singh said.
He also accused Modi of forgetting his promise of providing full statehood to Delhi and took a dig at former Congress chief minister Sheila Dikshit, saying if she feels that work is taking place properly then why had she written in her manifesto that the Congress would seek full statehood for the capital city.
`Work on schools, pollution and infrastructure has suffered’
Marlena said the annual painting of schools, which takes place during the summer vacations, has not even begun despite a month of holidays already having passed. Similarly, she said, nothing has happened on the pollution control front since the officers are yet to meet. The delay in the Signature Bridge was also due to this chaos.
Referring to the statement issued by the IAS association that they were not on strike, she asked if not working did not amount to a strike.
Saurabh Bharadwaj added that it has been clearly written in law that if an officer shows lethargy with work, then in government of India annals it would be treated as a strike. He also said that the press releases from the LG’s office and those issued by the IAS association bear a striking resemblance. “Kejriwal is fighting the battle for people’s rights from the LG’s residence and AAP activists are fighting it from the streets. We will not sit quiet this time. A decision will have to come.”