Delhi row: Four CMs rally behind Kejriwal

STANDOFF CONTINUES Delhi chief minister says ‘strike’ by IAS officers is being orchestrated by the BJPruled central government through their LG, appeals to PM Narendra Modi to intervene

NEW DELHI: The six-day sit-in by Arvind Kejriwal and members of his Cabinet at the lieutenant-governor’s office magnified into a larger political battle on Saturday, with chief ministers of four non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states descending on the national Capital in a show of support to the chief minister.

Mamata Banerjee, HD Kumaraswamy, Pinarayi Vijayan and N Chandrababu Naidu, chief ministers of West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, paid a visit to Kejriwal’s house after being denied permission by L-G Anil Baijal to call on the Delhi CM who has been holed up in the visitors’ room of the L-G’s office with deputy Manish Sisodia, PWD minister Satyendar Jain and labour minister Gopal Rai.

The chief ministers are in town to attend a Niti Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

“Tomorrow, in the meeting of Niti Ayog, all four of us will speak to the PM and seek his intervention in resolving the ongoing crisis in the national Capital. For four months work in Delhi has come to a halt. This is not the time to blame anyone,” said Mamata Banerjee.

NEWDELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his three Cabinet colleagues have refused to leave the lieutenantgovernor’s house till he concedes to their demand – that of asking the IAS officers posted in the Delhi government to call off their alleged strike. On the sixth day of their sit-in protest, when four other chief ministers landed in Delhi to show solidarity with Kejriwal in his protest, the Delhi CM responded to questions sent to him on emailfrom the 10X15 visitor’s room at the L-G’s office.

It is going to be the sixth night of your sitin. For how long do you and your Cabinet colleagues plan to continue with this protest?

The IAS officers’ strike has stalled many projects of public good in Delhi. IAS officers don’t attend meetings, don’t take calls of ministers, and don’t accompany the ministers for site visits. This is a very peculiar situation. After we came to power with a thumping majority in Delhi, the BJP-ruled central government snatched away all our powers. Today we cannot take any action against any erring officer. All this is being done intentionally at the behest of the Modi government at the Centre. However, the people of Delhi will collectively fight against this illegal strike. The people of Delhi will unitedly fight and win.

There is a point of view that governance of Delhi has become a farce and all that the government is interested in is scoring political brownie points. How do you respond to that?

This is totally untrue. We are here to fight for the people of Delhi. We need to firstly understand who is orchestrating this strike and why is it being done. In the last three years, despite creating numerous hurdles, the AAP government has done unprecedented work for the people of Delhi.

Even our opponents believe the AAP government has done a wonderful job, especially in the fields of health, education, power and water. People across the country have started asking that if the AAP government has delivered so much in three years – such as providing free medicines, test and treatment in government hospitals, private schools have not been allowed to increase fees, etc., all in just a short span of time of three years, then why can’t the other state governments where the BJP is in power, such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, follow suit? If the AAP government can lower power tariff in Delhi in three years, why is the BJP-ruled Centre unable to do so even in four years? Governments ruled by the BJP at the Centre as well as the states have been extremely unsuccessful. Therefore, they have devised a new way to stop the brilliant work done by AAP in Delhi – create so many hurdles that the AAP government cannot function at all. At their behest, all government officers are on strike. But I will continue my fight for the people of Delhi till my last breath. I will not budge till they put an end to the strike by the IAS officers and ask them to come back to work. These people are blackmailing the people of Delhi and holding them on ransom. I will not allow this to happen.

Have you tried to reach out to the other side, instead of taking them on? Isn’t politics, governance and administration about making compromises to ensure implementation?

For the past three months, we have been trying to sort out the issue with the hon’ble L-G. We have requested him to personally intervene and put an end to the strike. I have met the hon’ble L-G at least four times during last three months, education minister Manish Sisodia met him four times, health minister Satyender Jain met him three times and labour minister Gopal Rai met him three times. We have written numerous letters to him on the issue. Every time we meet him, the L-G only says one thing – he will try to resolve the issue in one week. Despite so many meetings and letters, there has been no progress on the issue. They want the strike to continue. This strike has been orchestrated by the central government through the L-G. We are now convinced they want to paralyse my government so that no work can be done in the remaining tenure. It was then that we decided not to take things sitting down.

You have said it’s not the IAS officers but others who are responsible for the standoff. Who are these others?

This strike is being orchestrated by the BJP-ruled central government through their L-G. The reason behind this is that despite so many obstacles created by the central government, even our staunchest political rivals admit that the Delhi gov- ernment has done wonderful work in health, education, electricity and water sectors in just three years.

The Modi government and the BJP state governments have no answers when people ask them about no fee hike by private schools in Delhi and free tests and medicines in Delhi government hospitals. It is precisely due to all this that the BJP has decided to now not let the Kejriwal government work.

There has been talk of a coalition with the Congress. Is there any truth to that?

The way the Congress has been siding with the BJP and supporting it on the Delhi L-G issue has angered and disappointed people.

Delhi has had chief ministers before, but why is it only now, during your tenure, that governance is facing such continuous turbulence?

That is what we have been saying. The Modi government through a notification barely three months after the people of Delhi elected our government with an unprecedented mandate in 2015, took away the power of transfers and postings of officers and also the ACB (anti-corruption bureau) from us.

The powers enjoyed by the Shiela Dikshit government were considerably reduced by the Modi government through its May 21, 2015, notification. It was aimed at paralysing the elected Delhi government.

Despite all these hurdles, the work of our government during last three years has been widely appreciated in India and abroad in the fields of health, education, electricity and water.

Will you meet the PM during the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for Sunday and seek his intervention?

I have written to the hon’ble prime minister and appealed to him that before the Niti Aayog meeting, the strike of IAS officers be called off. If the hon’ble PM wants, the officers’ strike will end within a minute.