Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 29: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party members of the Delhi Assembly will spend the Monday night in the Assembly premises as a night-long dharna demanding a CBI inquiry into the allegations of Rs 1,400 crores scam against the Delhi lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena when he was the chairman of the National Khadi Commission.
The voting on the confidence motion moved by the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to demonstrate that the opposition BJP’s “Operation Lotus” to topple his government by luring away the AAP MLAs had failed, was put off by a day till Tuesday after the House was adjourned for the day following demonstration in the well of the House by the ruling party members for action against the Lt Gov.
The BJP members were earlier marshalled out of the House for creating ruckus over the confidence motion which they claimed was a “ploy” to divert the attention of the House from important discussions on various corruption charges levelled against the Kejriwal government including the Central Vigilance Commission report on the construction of classrooms and excise policy among others.
They came to the well of the House after Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla rejected their demand for calling attention motion. She then asked them to leave the House for the entire day and were later marshalled out. “The Assembly session has been called for discussing serious issues. The Opposition members did not respect the House and had to be marshalled out,” Ms Birla told the Assembly. The session was adjourned thrice on Monday as protests continued.
The day started with a noisy showdown as BJP legislators raised slogans against the ruling AAP and demanded discussions on various issues, including the Excise Policy case. Just before the trust vote, BJP MLAs were marshalled out of the Delhi assembly for creating a ruckus.
Arvind Kejriwal said he wanted to take the majority test to prove that his party MLAs were honest and would not be tempted to cross over. He reiterated that the BJP had offered ₹ 20 crore each to his MLAs to switch sides.
Kejriwal alleged that the BJP has “bought” 277 MLAs till now to topple various state governments across the country, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Goa Maharashtra and Assam. “The party will now try to dislodge the Jharkhand government in the next 15 days,” he said.
“The BJP tried to buy our legislators too. Through this confidence motion, we wanted to show Delhiites that no AAP MLA has been bought. The “Operation Lotus” – a plan to topple the AAP government in Delhi – has failed,” he said.
After Kejriwal’s address, AAP MLAs jumped into the well alleging a scam of ₹ 1400 crore when Saxena was Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) chairman before being moved as the Delhi Lieutenant Governor. Holding placards, they raised slogans and demanded action against him.
The CBI recently raided the deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s residence in a case related to alleged irregularities and corruption in Delhi’s liquor policy which was introduced earlier this year and then rolled back. Sisodia is number one on a list of 15 accused named in the CBI’s FIR on liquor policy violations. The Enforcement Directorate has also filed a money laundering case against him.
The FIR is based on a reference from the Lieutenant Governor, who had accused AAP of bringing the Excise Policy “with the sole aim” of benefiting private liquor barons for financial benefits to “individuals at the highest echelons of the government. Saxena has alleged various discrepancies in the functioning of the Delhi government.
BJP MLA from Rohini, Vijender Gupta, said he had proposed the calling attention motion on the CVC report on construction of classrooms in government schools. “They (AAP) suppressed the report for two-and-a-half years and the Centre had no hand in it. Now, when it is out in the open, they say we are doing politics. We were marshalled out since the government is trying to escape from a discussion on the ongoing corruption cases,” Gupta told reporters outside the Assembly.
He said the AAP government neither wanted to talk on corruption nor wanted the Opposition to raise the matter. “It is clear there was heavy corruption in the construction of classrooms. It was a confidential report that they didn’t allow to emerge since 2020,” he said.
BJP MP Manoj Tewari, hit back at Kejriwal saying, “A party with 62 MLAs out of 70 will bring a confidence motion against itself, then get it passed, then it will get it printed in the media. What does AAP think of people of Delhi? Wasting public money and time.”
Reacting on confidence motion, Gupta said there was no point in it as the AAP has 62 of the total 70 MLAs. Leader of Opposition in the House Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the AAP government was running away from discussions on a range of issues such as corruption. “In the last 2.5 years since I have been a member, the Delhi government has not allowed discussion on various issues ranging from excise to pollution. Why are you suppressing the voice of the opposition? We have always said we will do constructive criticism, yet you don’t allow a discussion,” Bidhuri said.
While tabling the confidence motion, Kejriwal said the opposition members did not want to hold discussions but they only indulge in theatrics. “It is sad that they (BJP MLAs) are doing cheap politics,” he said.
