‘Jung Sahab is the Viceroy and PMO is London’

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday metaphorically described the present crisis in Delhi as a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “behaving like the Queen of England who controls Delhi through his Viceroy Najib Jung”.

“Before we gained independence, the Queen of England used to send notifications to the Viceroy here. Now, Jung Sahab is the Viceroy and PMO is London,” said Kejriwal.

The Chief Minister’s colourful remarks followed the issuance of a notification by the Home Ministry, which supported virtually all moves recently made by the Lieutenant Governor Najib Jung. The notification says the LG will have jurisdiction over matters connected with services, public order, police and land and he may consult with the Chief Minister whenever he thinks necessary in issues of services using his own “discretion“.

‘Protection of corruption’ This is part of a stand-off triggered by the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting Chief Secretary in Delhi. Kejriwal is opposed to Gamlin’s appointment on the grounds that she allegedly tried to favour two Reliance Infra-owned power companies through a ₹11,000 crore loan. Despite Kejriwal’s strong opposition, Najib Jung had appointed her to the post last Friday.

But Kejriwal said the issue is not really about appointment of bureaucrats as much as about the Modi government’s “protection of corruption” and “browbeating an elected government”.

“The BJP is not being able to recover from its defeat. The other issue is that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has stopped corruption in Delhi. The business of making money through transfer/postings has been stopped. All the corrupt contractors associated with the Congress and the BJP are running for their life. So, with its three MLAs, the BJP at the Centre is trying to run Delhi from the backdoor. They have backstabbed the people of Delhi,” said Kejriwal.

According to him, the real issue with the Centre’s notification on Friday was not just transfer/postings, but also the clause that specifies that the Anti-Corruption branch set up by the state government would not take cognizance of offences against central government officers and ministers.

“Their intention is revealed. What they are actually saying is that when the central government does corruption, we should look the other way,” said Kejriwal.

Left backs AAP Meanwhile, Left parties have come out in support of the AAP government over the Centre's notification, insisting that the Centre should resolve the issue through “co-operative federalism” instead of “coercive centralisation”.

The CPI(M) said it supports “full statehood for Delhi” demand and that the current situation underlines urgency for this.

CPI Deputy General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta termed the Centre’s move “wrong”.

“This is not right. It is wrong. It is against the Constitution. We support the state government,” Dasgupta said.