Stormy midnight meet sparks crisis in Delhi
NEWDELHI: The tenuous relationship between the Delhi government and the state bureaucracy was left in tatters on Tuesday after chief secretary Anshu Prakash alleged he was physically assaulted by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs in the presence of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal late on Monday night.
Prakash alleged the incident took place at midnight at Kejriwal’s official Flagstaff Road residence in Civil Lines. He accused legislators from the ruling party, including Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, of “hitting several blows with fists” on his head and temple for refusing to comply with their demands of releasing certain TV advertisements highlighting the achievements of the government.
The police registered an FIR based on the chief secretary’s statement, but Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia described the allegations as “bizarre” and said that the meeting was about people in the Capital not getting their stipulated supply of rations. Sisodia admitted that the meeting had got “heated” but said there was no assault. “In his complaint, Prakash said there was one MLA who issued life threats to him,” Delhi Police’s chief spokesperson
Dependra Pathak said, adding that the police have applied nine IPC sections, including criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, voluntarily causing hurt and assault to deter a public servant from discharging his duty, in the FIR. The AAP responded with counter-charges on Tuesday — state environment minister Imran Hussain and AAP leader Ashish Khetan alleged they were manhandled at the state secretariat by government officials.
They added MLAs Ajay Dutt and Prakash Jarwal filed a police complaint against Prakash for making “casteist remarks” during the late-night meeting at the chief minister’s residence.
Police have registered an FIR on Hussain and Khetan’s complaint, but are yet to register a case on the charges made by Dutt and Jarwal, who has been detained for questioning by the police.
In the middle of this crossfire, governance at the Delhi secretariat came to a halt on Tuesday as officials staged a sit-in protest against the alleged assault on the chief secretary. All meetings were cancelled, and state transport minister Kailash Gahlot said he had to call the police to escort them out of the secretariat building, which resonated with sounds of anti-government slogans all day. The bureaucrats have decided not to hold any meetings on Wednesday, and engage in only written communication with the government.
Condemning the alleged attack on the chief secretary, a delegation of the all-India IAS association met lieutenant-gov- ernor Anil Baijal and home minister Rajnath Singh demanding action against the MLAs. The team of bureaucrats termed the incident as a “pre-planned and pre-meditated” attack.
Singh sought a report from Baijal . “I’m deeply pained by the happenings involving the chief secretary of the Delhi government. The civil servants should be allowed to work with dignity and without fear,” he said.
“When someone will not answer on ration related issue, heated arguments are common. But the allegations (of physical assault) made by the chief secretary are completely baseless,” Sisodia said, and senior AAP leader Khetan called for an independent investigation.
Opposition parties in Delhi blamed Kejriwal for “stooping to low politics”. A group from the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) , led by president Manoj Tiwari, held a protest demonstration at the chief minister’s residence and described the incident as “urban Naxalism”.
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said the alleged manhandling of chief secretary was an unfortunate incident showing administrative failure of the Kejriwal government.