The ball is now in AAP’s court
Ultimately, it is for the party to find a way to run Delhi
The confrontation between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the bureaucracy in Delhi could not have got uglier. Possibly for the first time, a chief secretary has accused lawmakers of assault. The MLAs concerned and the deputy CM have denied the charges. While the jury is still out on the allegations and counter-allegations, AAP and the bureaucracy have a long history of similar altercations. In 2015, the CM’s office opposed the appointment of an acting chief secretary by the Lieutenant Governor. The incumbent chief secretary’s predecessor was last year accused of not following the CM’s order to re-examine the metro fare hike and skipping important meetings. In the same year, more than 200 officials went on leave when two civil servants were suspended. The Union home ministry then revoked the suspension on jurisdiction issues, further deepening the ever-expanding chasm between the state government and the Centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor.
Admittedly, there is an inherent problem in the overlapping power-sharing structure of the Delhi administration between an elected government and the LG’s office. This contradiction played out in the past as well but more often than not the adversaries — former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and former home minister LK Advani, for example — succeeded in maintaining a working relationship.
These are different times. The fierce political rivalry between the two parties in power at the Centre and the state has long descended into bitter public acrimony, which perhaps makes climbing down over any issue difficult. The bureaucracy, for the most part, is caught between the two sparring rivals. In this face-off, what has been baffling is that none of the stakeholders showed any intent to avert stalemates. It was a matter of time before things got to where they are now. The perception that AAP complains too much is not helping the party or the people who voted it to power. Ultimately, it is for AAP to find a way to run the Delhi government.