New Delhi: Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia has written a strong letter of protest to Union home minister Amit Shah for transferring out the capital’s director of education without consulting the elected AAP government.
Sisodia has pointed out that the IAS officer, Vinay Bhushan, was part of a team of academicians and officers constituted by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to improve the quality of education in Delhi. Stating that the transfer would hurt the efforts, he urged Shah to keep Bhushan in Delhi until at least the end of the current academic session in March 2021.
While the Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi has since the outbreak of COVID-19 made it a point not to raise political issues, over the past four months, it has been engaged in a tussle with the Centre and its representative, the Lieutenant-Governor, over the appointments of special public prosecutors and senior advocates to fight the North East Delhi riots case and now over the transfer of the senior officer.
Incidentally, in several interviews since March this year, Kejriwal has outrightly refused to get drawn into any blame game with the Centre over the handling of the COVID-19 crisis, saying, “This is the time to work together.”
His party leaders, including deputy CM Sisodia, have also been guarded in their approach. Recently, when the BJP’s North Delhi mayor blamed the Delhi government for waterlogging at the Minto Bridge, which also claimed a life, Sisodia again repeated that it was time to work together to resolve the problems of the people.
But AAP’s soft approach appears to have sent a signal of weakness across to the BJP camp. Be it in the matter of appointment of advocates or transfer of officers, the BJP-ruled Centre has only hardened its stance.
This time though, Sisodia has not taken it lightly and sent a strong letter to Shah, reminding the Centre of the right of the elected government in Delhi to be heard in matters of transfer of officers.
Sisodia wrote that the country is currently undergoing an unprecedented crisis and the worst effect of the coronavirus-induced lockdown is on the education of children. He said with schools and universities completely closed, the Delhi government is trying to continue the education of children through “step-by-step planning”.
He said the city’s students did well in the Class XII examinations and the government schools had a 98 pass percentage this time. “This is probably the first time that the state government schools have received such spectacular results.”
Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia interacts with schoolchildren at a happiness class at a government school in Vinod Nagar on February 22, 2020. Photo: PTI
After board results, new education strategy was being formulated
The education minister wrote that soon after the results came out last week, Kejriwal and he began working with a team of officers and academicians to formulate a strategy “so that in the years to come, not a single child in government schools remained uneducated and every child could play a role in nation-building by gaining the best of education.”
He said the strategy was being devised in coordination with principals, teachers and students. “I, along with the officials of the Education Department, also spoke to the students who scored less and tried to understand where the shortfall was. In a system where 98 percent of the children have passed, 2 percent of the children failed because of various circumstances and reasons.”
But, he lamented that while the government was in the midst of talking to the students and formulating a strategy to further improve the education system, the order from the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the transfer of Bhushan to Andaman was received. “On one side I was witnessing the officers dreaming about a fruitful education system for Delhi in the next few years, and on the other side, I was reading your order in which you pulled out the foundation stone of those dreams,” he wrote.
‘What was the urgency?’
Sisodia also questioned the urgency behind the transfer, saying Bhushan has been director of education only for one year. “Then why did you feel a hurry to remove him from this post and send him out of Delhi?” he asked.
He asked Shah, with whom Kejriwal and he have worked closely in planning and visiting various health facilities and programmes during the COVID-19 crisis, “Were you not happy that government schools in Delhi have yielded good results? Did you not feel that the officials and their teams who have made this possible should be commended and have their work put forth in front of the entire country as a model so that government schools all over the country can get back their lost dignity?”
Sisodia also reminded Shah that Kejriwal believes that without education, the strong cannot be developed. “Working on the same vision, the government schools in Delhi are developing a new identity today and the education model of Delhi is being appreciated not only in the country but all over the world,” he said.
In such a scenario, he asked: “Do you not think that with such a chief minister, you should discuss the roadmap for improving the education system of the entire country, rather than sending transferring the Director of Education out of Delhi without consulting him?”
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia address the media. Photo: PTI/Files
Powers of elected government
Finally, Sisodia also reminded the Centre about the elected government’s powers in matters of appointment and transfer of officers. He wrote: “You say that Delhi is a union territory. If it is so, is it not the responsibility of the Centre to help in improving the education system in Delhi? Under the law, you are the controlling authority of the IAS officers belonging to the AGMUT cadre (Arunachal, Goa, Mizoram, and Union territories). This authority has been given to you so that you consult the chief ministers of these states and territories and deploy IAS officers amongst them. You have ordered these transfers without consulting the chief ministers of any of these states.”
Sisodia then urged Shah to reconsider his decision and allow Bhushan to continue his tenure as the director of education in Delhi, at least until the end of the current education session in March 2021. “Also,” he added, “please ensure that before ordering the inter-state transfers of any officers, the chief ministers of those states are consulted. I hope you will not disappoint me and make a positive decision on the above at the earliest.”